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THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF 
GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

1858-1914 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY 

OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE 

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY 



BY 

CECIL MERNE PUTNAM CROSS 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



THE UNIVERSITY OP CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



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NEW YORK 

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LONDON 

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TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKTJOKA, SENDAI 

THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY 

SHANGHAI 



Ube xrinfverstts of Gbtcago 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF- " ? * 
GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

1858-1914 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY 

OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE 

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY 



BY 

CECIL MERNE PUTNAM CROSS 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
-"2- -2-. 






Copyright 1922 By 
The University of Chicago 

All Rights Reserved 

Published July 1922 






Composed and Printed By 

The University oi Chicago Press 

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 



PREFATORY NOTE 

The conviction that the political development of India was to be one 
of the most important problems before the world in the next twenty 
years, was the primary motive in undertaking the investigation of the 
development of self-government in India during the years from the 
mutiny to the outbreak of the world-war. 

The period since 1914 has been obscured by the censorship, propa- 
ganda, and misinformation to such an extent that partisanship, which 
has no place in such a treatise, has no means of being controlled or 
evaluated. This investigation has, therefore, been confined strictly 
to developing a background for a comprehension of the forces and 
movements at work in India. 

Since the war new figures, such as Ghandi, and new methods or 
modifications of methods, such as non-co-operation and the Hindu- 
Mohammedan entente, have come, but at this date little essential altera- 
tion has been effected in the current of events, the outcome of which 
must be awaited with anxious concern not only by the British Empire 
but by the world at large. 

A personal debt of gratitude is owed to the courteous authorities of 
the University of Chicago Library, the Massachusetts State Library, 
the Columbia University Library, and the Library of Congress for their 
invaluable assistance in this work; and a still deeper obligation for the 
inspiration and assistance of the members of the faculty of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago. 

Aden, Arabia 
March 20, 1922 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



PAGE 



I. Introduction i 

II. The Transfer of the Government of India to the Crown . 16 

III. The Indian Councils Act of 1861 . . . . . . . 3 1 

IV. Municipalities, 1858-68 48 

V. Municipalities, 1868-82 (Lord Mayo and Lord Northbrook) 62 

VI. Reforms of Lord Ripon, 1881-85 77 

VII. Ripon's Reforms — The Laws 99 

VIII. The Indian National Congress 133 

IX. The Indian Councils Act of 1892 ....... 149 

X. The Presidency Cities, 1858-1914 170 

XL The Morley Minto Reforms 182 

XII. The Future 227 

Bibliography of Literature Cited 234 

General Bibliography 237 

Index 247 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

English rule in India the most colossal missionary enterprise in history 
The establishment of British rule in India 

The East India Company 

Footholds 

Madras, 1639 
Bombay, 1662 
Bengal, 1765 

Expansion, centering largely around Bengal and up the Ganges Valley 

Rivals: Mughals, French, Mahrattas 
The problem encountered by the English in their attempt to Anglicize India 

The territorial immensity of India 

The enormous population 

The climate 

Race antipathy 
The attitude assumed by England 

The liberal policy — governing for the good of India 

The conservative policy — the exploitation of India 
The execution of the policies 

Black spots on England's record 

The good side 
The degree of success achieved 

Material 

Moral 

The form of government possibly the most enduring of all the English 
contributions 
Ihe forces enabling England to maintain her supremacy 

The divisions of India 

Military superiority and precautions 
The attitude of the natives toward England 

Lack of love for English rule 

Preference for English over any other foreign domination 

The development of self-government in India is a drama for the last 
act of which the curtain has not yet risen, and it would perhaps be 
premature to even assert that the stage has yet been set for it, although 
there are stirrings and noises that seem to indicate that the scene-shifters 
are at their work. 



2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

When the last curtain does finally fall, however, whether it be on a 
new nation or on a new self-governing colony of the British Empire, it 
will be the finale of one of the most colossal missionary undertakings in 
history, an attempt by a nation to impose its civilization on a continent 
teeming with a population seven fold its own in numbers, thousands of 
miles distant, and already equipped with highly developed, complex 
civilizations which were hoary with antiquity before the dawn of history 
rose upon its own existence. 

The development and continuance of the political dominion over 
India which alone has made the experiment possible has been on the 
whole a purblind process, made up of opportunism, mingled with an 
occasional stroke of audacious genius. Its motives have been pre- 
dominantly commercial, colored by the impulses characteristic of 
imperialism and blended at times with lofty idealism. 

It- is not the purpose of this thesis to trace the growth of the British 
power in India, but certain of its broad features may well be brought to 
mind. It began with the operations of the British East India Company, 
a typical chartered trading company, which received its first charter 
from Queen Elizabeth in 1600. Steady and strong support from the 
English government and people, in its rivalries with the Portuguese, 
Dutch, and later with the French, eventually enabled it to drive them 
from the field. 

The Company secured its first territorial foothold in 1639 at Madras, 
where Francis Day built Fort St. George. In 1662 Bombay came to 
England as part of the dowry of Catharine of Braganza, of Portugal. 
Charles II turned it over to the Company, which for safety against the 
Mahrattas made it the west coast base. The third leg of the tripod on 
which England has built up its supremacy in India was obtained in 
1765, when the Company secured the diwani of Bengal. 

From these three centers, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta in Bengal, 
England spread her power out over the country in the years of the 
dissolution of the Mughal Empire of Delhi, engaging in a death struggle 
with the French, the Mahrattas, and the Sikhs for the estate. Bit by 
bit as necessity required or opportunity offered, Clive and his coadjutors 
and successors added to the English territory. 

The Ganges Valley, which proved the easiest prey, was the first and 
most persistently exploited field. Consequently, most of the annexa- 
tions were made to Bengal. Madras took very nearly its present shape 
as a province at the fall of Tipu Sultan in 1799. Bombay secured 
practically all of its provincial territory at the close of the third Mahratta 



INTRODUCTION 3 

war in 1818. With these exceptions most of the rest of the acquired 
areas went to Bengal and resulted in its governor being elevated to a 
position of supremacy over Bombay, Madras, and the rest of India. 
The unwieldiness of its bulk necessitated the erection of parts of its 
territory into new provinces, and the creation of the governor-generalship 
dimmed the glory of its governor, but Bengal retained its political 
pre-eminence until 191 1 when the capital was removed to "Delhi of the 
Great Mughal." 

The process was not uniform, however. In all the provinces large 
enclaves and bits of territory have continued under their native rulers 
who acknowledged the suzerainty of England, and who are controlled 
entirely by her in their foreign relations, and whose internal adminis- 
tration is supervised to a varying extent by her officials. These native 
states lie beyond the scope of a study of the development of self- 
government in British India. Each has its own history, and for the great 
progress which, in certain instances like Baroda, has been made, England 
has been only secondarily responsible through advice and example. 

Within her own territories it has been otherwise. The problems of 
government have been innumerable, and the difficulties enormous, 
perhaps insurmountable, but in meeting them, England has had a free 
hand. Her work is her own. She is entitled to the credit for her 
successes, but must, on the other hand, bear the blame for mistakes. 
Particularly is this true since 1858, when the political dominion of the 
East India Company was abolished and the British government itself 
took charge. It is with that date, then, that we begin our study. 

The development of self-government has until very recently been 
only one insignificant aspect of the administrative phase of the work of 
England in India. To get it in its proper setting and perspective, and to 
appreciate how great even that part of the work has been, some realiza- 
tion of the problem is necessary even at the risk of platitudes. 

The India 1 which confronted England was a continent as large as 
Europe west of the Vistula, and with thirty millions more people, full of an- 
cient nations, of great cities, of varieties of civilization, of armies, nobili- 
ties, priesthoods, and organizations for every conceivable purpose from 
the spread of great religions down to systematic murder. It was the birth- 
place of two of the great religions of the world and the battle ground of 
three, or, counting Christianity, of perhaps four. Among its peoples 
religious animosity still smoldered with a fury and fanaticism never 

1 Meredith Townsend, "Will England Retain India ? " Contemporary Review, LIII 
(1888), 795-96. 



4 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

equaled in the West. No practice seemed too cruel or degrading accord- 
ing to occidental standards to be jealously cherished by some Indian 
sect as an all-essential to be defended and preserved even in certain 
instances at the cost of life itself. 

Within its confines were twice as many Bengalis as there were 
Frenchmen in Europe. The Hindostanees, properly so called, out- 
numbered the whites in the United States in 1888. The Mahrattas 
would have filled Spain. The people of the Punjab with Scinde would 
have doubled the population of Turkey. These were but four of the 
more salient divisions. As for the whole population, one modern agitator 
said, " If every native were to spit in a tank, there would be enough to 
drown every European in India"; 1 or in the words of Lord Curzon, 
"The English in India are indeed little more than a little foam on a dark 
unfathomed ocean." 2 

The people were of all imaginable types. Some were the fighting 
races of the north, whose males were as big, as brave, and more reckless 
of death than those of the white races, and numbered in 1888 at least 
one hundred and twenty million. At the other extreme were the docile, 
depressed, servile millions of outcasts, and the timid aboriginals of the 
jungles. On the one hand were the intellectual and cultured Brahmins, 
on the other, the Ghonds and Bhils. 

Over five hundred languages were spoken within its limits, comprising 
fourteen major groups. There were tens of millions of peasants whose 
hoarding had made of India for ages the great absorbent of the precious 
metals; tens of millions of peasants beside whose poverty fellahs were 
rich, for when all is said, India has long been, as far as the masses are 
concerned, the poorest of the great countries of the world. Its millions 
of artisans, ranging from the men who have built its wonderful palaces 
to those who, nearly naked and almost without tools, do the humblest 
work, have toiled unceasingly in vain efforts to escape the famine which 
has continued to stalk through the land. 

Such were some of the material aspects of the situation that has 
confronted the English. On the political side and more specifically 
bearing on the development of self-government, Lord Lytton put the 
problem thus: 

It must, however, be remembered that the problem undertaken by the 
British rulers of India [a political problem more perplexing in its conditions 

1 Enroll, "The Recent Crisis in India," Nineteenth Century Review, LXII 
(1907), 202. 

2 Georg Wegener, "A German's Impressions of India," ibid., LXXIII (1913), 961. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

and as regards the results of its solution more far-reaching than any which 
since the dissolution of the Pax Romana, has been undertaken by a conquering 
race] is the application of the most refined principles of European government 
and some of the most artificial institutions of European society to a vast 
oriental population, in whose history, habits, and traditions they had had no 
previous existence. Such phrases as "Religious Toleration," "Liberty of the 
Press," "Personal Freedom of the Subject," "Social Supremacy of the Law," 
and others, which in England have long been the mere catchwords of ideas 
common to the whole race and deeply impressed upon its character by all the 
events of its history and all the most cherished recollections of its earlier 
life are, here in India, to the vast mass of our native subjects the mysterious 
formulas of a foreign and more or less uncongenial system of administration, 
which is "scarcely if at all intelligible to the greater number of those for whose 
benefit it is maintained. It is a fact which when I first came to India was 
strongly impressed on my attention by one of India's wisest and most thought- 
ful administrators. It is a fact which there is no disguising, and it is also one 
which cannot be too constantly or too anxiously recognized, that by enforcing 
these institutions we have placed and must permanently maintain ourselves 
at the head of a gradual but gigantic revolution, the greatest and most momen- 
tous social, moral, and religious, as well as political revolution which perhaps 
the world has ever witnessed. 1 

Added to all this was a climate which, even when unmixed with 
alcohol and modified so far as medical science is yet able, makes perma- 
nent settlement forever impossible for a northern white race. 2 The race 
problem in its narrow social sense of racial antipathy was not of particular 
importance until the last half -century, but it is now steadily becoming' 
an increasing and more menacing difficulty. 

Such were the conditions with which England was confronted. 
What was the goal which England set up to guide her in dealing with 
the situation, and what were the motives which impelled her to seek to 
imprint her civilization on the millions of India ? No aim was ever held 
very clearly or steadily in mind, but there seems to have been a conviction 
that things English were the best in the world and must be carried 
wherever Englishmen went in their quest for wealth or power. To this 
major premise was added the minor, that what was good for the English- 
man must be good for the natives and therefore must be given them. 
As Fraser's Magazine put it in 1873: 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XVII 
(1878), 176. 

2 Sidney Jones Owen, "The Stability of Our Indian Empire, ''Contemporary Review, 
XXXI (1877), 495- 



6 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

We have been induced to act thus from the conviction, which is so strong 
among us that it almost amounts to a mania, that because these are English 
institutions, and have conduced to make England great and prosperous, 
therefore they must inevitably have the same effect in India. 1 

Still farther in the background were the impelling motives that 
brought England into India in the first place and still keep her there. 
Originally it was the desire for commercial gain that lured the ships of 
the East India Company to Surat and the Malabar Coast. When the 
disorder consequent on the crumbling of the Mughal Empire reduced 
the profits of legitimate trade, the opportunity for deriving even greater 
returns by participating in the wars of the country and jealous rivalry 
with the French impelled the Company to embark on a career of terri- 
torial aggrandizement that lasted until the Crown assumed control, and 
may be said to have been continued by it down to the present day. 
Under the Crown, however, it has been rather more of a question of 
staying and retaining India in perpetuum as part of the British Em- 
pire than of advancing the frontiers. 

In regard to this there have been, broadly speaking, two general 
classes of arguments and theories as to the proper policy to pursue. 
The first has been that of the Liberals: that England, since she was in 
India as the governing power, must act as a species of patron saint to 
guide the natives in the paths of progress, and that her policy should be 
framed primarily for the good of India. The other contention has been 
that the English were in India first of all for the same reason which 
brought their forefathers there in the first place — the good of England— 
and that Indian interests were but secondary, and to be considered only 
when convenient. 

The justification of the one attitude was its altruism and idealism. 
The reasons advanced to support the other view were: the anarchy and 
horrors which would follow leaving India to the "natives," and for the 
prevention of which England was entitled to remuneration; the great 
commercial profits to be derived from the commercial exploitation of 
the country; the financial gains to be drawn from its government in the 
form of salaries and pensions for officials and soldiers; its value as an 
outlet for the activity of England's surplus youth; its military value as 
a training ground for England's army; and lastly its political worth as 
an important element in England's political and international prestige. 
To secure and maintain these advantages India must be held in close 

1 " S," "The Functions of Government in India, " Fraser's Magazine, LXXXVIII 
(1873), 208. 



INTRODUCTION 7 

leash by military force, and in consequence the adherents to this type of 
theory have opposed all concessions and advocated repression. 

In the words of Herbert Taylor in 1881: 

All self-deception must be cast aside, with all expression of Pharisaical 
philanthropy; and we must boldly acknowledge what nine out of ten of us 
deny with our lips, though confessing in our hearts, that we are in India 
primarily for our own national good. 1 

Mr. McLean, M.P., 2 repeated this thought in 1889 when he said: 
Let us have the courage to repudiate the pretence which foreign nations 
laugh at, and which hardly deceives ourselves, that we keep India merely for 
the benefit of the people of that country, and in order to train them for self- 
government. We keep it for the sake of the interests and the honour of Eng- 
land, and the only form of government by which we can continue to hold it in 
subjection is that of a despotism. 3 

On the whole the expressions of the liberal view have been the most 
frequent. For instance, John Bright in 1858 said: "You may govern 
India, if you like, for the good of England, but the good of England must 
come through the channel of the good of India." 4 

Gladstone in his Limehouse speech said that, "Our time in India 
depended on our stay there being profitable to the people and our making 

them understand that It will not do for us to treat with contempt 

or even with indifference the rising aspirations of this great people." 5 

. Lord Northbrook in the same vein said : "Never forget that it is our 
duty to govern India not for our own profit and advantage but for the 
benefit of the natives of India." 6 

1 Herbert Taylor, "The Future of India," Contemporary Review, XXXIX 
(1881), 475-76. 

2 Voice of India, VII (1889), 302. 

3 See the following articles for additional illustrations of the exploiter's views. 
"The English in India," Westminster Review, LXIX (1858), 199 et seq; "The Climate 
and the Work," Cornhill Magazine, VI (1862), 244; M. E. Grant-Duff, "India, 
Political and Social," Contemporary Review, XXVI (1875), 857-86; H. G. Keene, "John 
Bull's Eastern Estate, " Westminster Review, CXLVII (1897), 357-66; Arthur Sawtell, 
"India under British Rule," Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute, XXXVII (1906), 
291; George Chesney, "The Value of India to England," Nineteenth Century Review, 
III (1878), 227-38; H. Fielding Hall, "The Competition Wallah," Fortnightly Review, 
XCIX (1913), 279-89. The soundness of the arguments thus advanced has at times 
been denied. In this connection see the following articles: M. E. Grant-Duff, loc. cit.; 
Grant Allen, "Why Keep India?" Contemporary Review, XXXVIII (1880), 544-56. 

4 Parliamentary Debates, N.S., Vol. CLI (1858), col. 346. 
^ Ibid., 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), col. 94. 

6 Bernard Mallet, Thomas George, Earl of Northbrook, p. 135. 



8 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

In 1892 Mr. McNeal said in Parliament, "Englishmen or Europeans 
ought to leave India if they did not stay there for the benefit of the 
people." 1 

A. G. Leonard in 1909 repeated the same thought in the Westminster 
Review. 2 He wrote: 

As a point of honour alone, it is obviously our duty to do nothing in India 
that will earn for us the hatred of her people and the subsequent reproach of 
humanity, when in the days that are to follow the history of our relations with 
her shall come to be written. It is within our reach on the contrary to make 
our administration of India a living monument of British greatness and human- 
ity that will earn for Great Britain an enduring and imperishable fame 

To arrive at this climax we must not only care for and foster Indian interests 
as they were one with ours, but also make it our business to develop the 
capacities and energies of the people as we develop our own.' 

As far as the actual government has gone, it seems not to have 
mattered so very materially which of the two policies had its exponents 
in power. On the whole the Liberals have stood for the more generous 
policy and the Conservatives for the more selfish. Actually their 
behavior has been very much alike. The Liberal Lord Ripon gave a 
tremendous impulse to self-government, particularly in rural tracts, but 
he, on the other hand, abolished the duty on cotton, as the natives 
believed in the interests of the Lancashire mills. It is true that with the 
exception of the Indian Councils Act of 1892 which inaugurated the right 
of interpellation and enlarged the legislative councils, extending to them 
the elective principal and increasing their right to discuss the budget, 
all the extensions of self-government have been by the Liberals, but the 
execution of the reforms have been carried out by the Conservatives 
with very much the same spirit. As a rule the good of England 
has in practice been sought by both in what they regarded as the 
good of India. 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), col. 93. 

2 Major A. G. Leonard, "How to Reform India," Westminster Review, CLXXI 
(1909), 627-28. 

3 For other elaborations of the liberal attitude see the following: "The English 
in India," Westminster Review, LXIX (1858), 203; "Self-Government in India," 
British Quarterly Review, XXXVIII (1863), 432; Journal of the National Indian Asso- 
ciation, 1872, p. 90; "Duties of England to India," Fraser's Magazine, LXIV (1861), 
674-77; A. P. Sinnett, "Anglo-Indian Complications," Fortnightly Review, XL 
(1883), 409; A. Hobhouse, "Last Words on Mr. Ilbert's Bill," Contemporary Review, 
XLIV (1884), 400-401; C. H. T. Crosthwaite, "The New Spirit in India," Black- 
wood's Magazine, 1906, pp. 403-14. 



INTRODUCTION Q 

There have, it is true, been occasional black spots on England's 
record which must not be forgotten in an impartial survey. Most of 
them seem to be attributable either to race feeling or weakness in certain 
individuals intrusted with enormous power. Let two instances suffice. 

In January, 1872, there occurred an insignificant rising among a sect 
called the Kookas. No lives were lost, and in their attack on a fort the 
Kookas seem to have merely attempted to bind and not to kill. They 
were easily suppressed. Fifty prisoners were taken. Without any 
semblance of a trial the English official had them all blown from the 
cannon's mouth. He was dismissed from the service, but no other action 
was taken. 1 

The treatment of the natives by individual Englishmen has often 
been domineering and even brutal. Occasionally there have even been 
cases like the following one described by William Bonnar. 

Not so very long ago I heard a civil surgeon gaily tell at a mess dinner 
how the other day he had felt constrained to teach a native somewhat forcibly 
his respectful duty to the "Ruling Race." The "nigger," as he put it, had his 
whiskers and beard tied up, as all natives like to have them when travelling, 
when he met him on a country road. The doctor pulled him up and demanded 
to know why he had not undone his face cloth when he saw a Sahib coming. 
Then suddenly remembering that he had a pair of forceps in his pocket, he 
dismounted, and taking the poor man's head under his powerful arm extracted 
two of his teeth, saying, "Now tie up your mouth, my man. You have some 
excuse now." 2 

Such instances, however, are very much the exception. Over 
against them should be set the manner in which the settlement officers 
work among the people and the conduct of British officers in dealing 
with famine and in taking their lives in their hands to combat epi- 
demics such as cholera and plague. 3 Instances also are numerous of 
life-long intimate friendships between Englishmen and natives and of 
the preference by the natives for English officials to those of theii own 
race. 4 

1 James Routledge, English Rule and Native Opinion in India, p. 100. 

2 William Bonnar, "The English in India," Contemporary Review, LXVIII 
(1895), 566. 

3 Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute, XXXVIII (1906-7), 150. 

1 1n this connection see: J. Anderson, "Indian Self-Government, " East and West 
Magazine, VI (1907), 337-47; John Morley, " Signs of the Times in India, " Edinburgh 
Review, CCVI (1907), 297; Sir Bampfylde Fuller, "Quo Vadis," Nineteenth Century 
Review, LXV (1909), 714. 



io THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

How successful England has been in Anglicizing India cannot be 
answered. On the material side England has performed marvels in the 
construction of a steadily growing network of hospitals, roads, transpor- 
tation and irrigation canals, railways, and telegraph lines. She has 
given India a postal system. Englishmen and English capital have, 
for the most part, built and operated the cotton and other factories, 
created its tea, jute, indigo, and rubber plantations, and developed its 
mines and oil wells. 

Economically speaking, however, the success and value of these 
measures is disputed by many of the educated natives, perhaps on 
account of sentimental bias. They contend that the expense involved 
constitutes a "drain" to England that has been variously estimated at 
from eighteen to hundreds of millions of pounds a year, in the form of 
salaries, pensions, various home charges, interest on investments, and 
similar items. 1 This it is claimed has more than offset the benefits 
derived from the development projects and even those from the pax 
Britannica and the English administrative system. This seems more 
than doubtful, but does derive some color from the fact that India as a 
whole is appallingly poverty- and frequently gruesomely famine-stricken. 

On the moral side the English government has been able to do less. 
Suti and Thugi were suppressed, but Queen Victoria's proclamation in 
1858 announced a policy of religious neutrality which has been strictly 
adhered to. In India the religious comes so near to being synonymous 
with social that it has been possible for the government to do but little. 

The English government is only incidentally responsible for the 
tremendous transformation now in progress in native thought in India. 
It is but one phase of the mental revolution in the oriental mind through- 
out the East, and is to be primarily attributed to the same causes — the 
shrinkage of the world by improved means of communication and the 
readjustments necessitated by new machines, new processes, and new 

1 Among the estimates the following are a few examples. A Hindu, "The Griev- 
ances of India," Dark Blue Magazine, III (1872), 325: 10,000,000 pounds a year and 
the support of 80,000 Britons. H. M. Hyndman, "Bleeding to Death, " Nineteenth 
Century Review, VIII (1880), 165: 20,000,000 pounds a year. J. S. Keay, "The 
Spoliation of India, " Nineteenth Century Review, XIV (1883) , 5, 16 : 30,000,000 pounds 
a year in "direct tribute"; 70,000,000 pounds a year, total drain. E. Pratt, "India 
and Her Friends," Westminster Review, CXLVII (1897), 646: 30,000,000 pounds a 
year. A. Sawtell, op. cit., p. 290: 200,000,000 pounds a year. Saint Nihal Singh, 
"Unrest in India," Arena, XXXVIII (1907), 604: 20,000,000 pounds annually. 
Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), col. 106: 13,000,000 pounds annually 
for salaries alone. 



INTRODUCTION 1 1 

thoughts. England at most has only modified it slightly in India. If 
anything she seems to have retarded it, as compared to the same move- 
ment in China and Japan. 

What England has been able to accomplish on the social and moral 
side has been almost entirely through education. This problem of 
educating, even in the elements, the enormous population has been 
attacked by the government, the missionaries, and by the Hindus and 
Mohammedans themselves, but the progress made has been relatively 
insignificant. The surface only has been scratched. Some thousands of 
as keen minds as exist anywhere in the world have been given university 
educations, some millions have been taught to read and write some 
language, but the hundreds of millions can do neither. 

As yet the time has been too short to judge as to the permanence 1 
and depth of the English influence either on the material or moral side. 
It seems inconceivable that India should ever discard England's material 
contribution to the development of the country, but it will be no great 
marvel if the most enduring imprint left by England on Indian life will 
prove to be that made by the political mold, and the most significant 
work done by England in India will be found to have been the develop- 
ment of self-government in the country and the transplanting to India 
of English political institutions and ideals. 

In England's effort to solve the problem of Anglicizing India, she 
has so far succeeded in maintaining her all-essential political supremacy 
largely through two conditions. The first and most important of these 
has been the infinite number of divisions and antagonisms — religious, 
racial, social, and political — which divide India and which enabled the 
East India Company to establish its dominion by conquering the country 
in sections and playing one native unit off against another. 

It has, since the days of the Company, also precluded any unity on 
the part of the masses. Had England's rule been harsh, doubtless 
something of the nature of a united front might have been patched up, 
and of late among the upper classes there have been symptoms of an 
inchoate national sentiment which may ultimately permeate the lower 
strata and produce a united India. As yet, however, the antagonism 
of race to race, caste to caste, and religion to religion has been far greater 
than any aversion to British rule. Any tendency to unity has been 
further checked in all except the English-speaking classes by the barrier 
of language, which has prevented any real combination between groups. 

'For some estimates of the reality and permanence of English achievements in 
India, see: M. E. Grant-Duff, op. tit., pp. 866 et seq.; G. Wegener, op. cit., pp. 960-77. 



12 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The second factor in England's supremacy has been her immense 
military and material superiority over any force in India. The English 
army in India has been maintained in the vicinity of seventy-five thou- 
sand men, not at first glance a large force to dominate three hundred 
millions, but ample as long as it is in possession of all the artillery and 
all the higher officers of the supplementary Sepoy forces, and when 
backed by a prestige that has never been allowed to be marred by an unre- 
trieved defeat, and faced by a disarmed and hopelessly divided population. 

What the attitude of the natives toward the English, their work, 
and their dominion has been, is exceedingly difficult to generalize upon. 
Very few English writers have contended that English rule was popular. 1 
Most seem to have innately the feeling expressed by W. T. Thornton in 
the Comhill Magazine in 187 1, when he wrote: 

We have only to ask how we ourselves should like it if, the British Islands 
happening to become outlying appendages of the new Prussian Empire, no 
native-born Briton were suffered to hold a commission in the army or to rise 
above a second-class clerkship in the civil service, or above a county court 
judgeship in the law. Would any or all of the real and substantial advantages 
that might possibly accompany Prussian annexation — would completest 
reform of railway mismanagement or fullest security against garrotting or 
widest diffusion of intellectual and aesthetic culture — be accepted as com- 
pensation for such blockage of all careers which ordinary ambition most affects ? 
Would not baffled longings turn rapidly into bitter animosity, engendered 
first among those ardent spirits by whom opinion is formed and directed and 
gradually accepted by the docile multitudes who think and feel in all public 
matters as popular leaders bid them ? 2 

In 1882 Sir Richard Temple worked out the following classification 
which probably represents the general opinion of the time: 3 

The actively loyal classes were: 

1. The princes and chiefs of the native states. 

2. The banking, trading, and industrial classes. 

3. The zamindars and landholders of permanently settled estates. 

1 For some English estimates of the attitude of the natives see: "Life in India," 
Fraser's Magazine, LXXX (1869), 346; M. Townsend, op. cit., p. 798; Sir H. J. S. 
Cotton, " Some Indian Problems, " East and West Magazine, I, No. 2 (1902), 1198-1205; 
"Proceedings of the East Indian Association," Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, 
3d. Ser., XXI (1906), 355; Sir Bampfylde Fuller, "Indian Aspirations," Proceedings 
of the Royal Colonial Institute, XL (1909), 366. P. Kennedy, " Bitter India, " Forum, 
XLIII (1910), 107 ct seq.; "S," "Indian Anarchism," East and West Magazine, XII 
(1913), 761-67. 

2 W. T. Thornton, "National Education in India," Comhill Magazine, XXIII 
(1871), 294. 

3 Sir Richard Temple, Men and Events of My Time in India, (1882), p. 504. 



INTRODUCTION 13 

The passively loyal classes were: 

1. The peasant proprietors and cultivators. 

2. The laborers. 

The mixed classes, of which many were loyal but some the reverse, were: 

1. The educated classes. 

2. The native aristocracy in the British territories. 

3. The Hindu and Mohammedan priesthood. 

The classes which were excitable or ready for mischief were: 

1. The fanatics. 

2. The hangers-on of the courts and camps. 

3. The mob. 

Of these classes he believed that the passively loyal, which included 
two-thirds of the population, would support the government but would 
not fight for it. 

Whatever the accuracy of Sir Richard Temple's analysis may have 
been, it serves in a rough way to indicate the general alignment of the 
classes and shows how difficult any generalization is for all divisions and 
epochs. The immense mass of the population, as far as those who are 
in a position to know testify, are in the words of Sir A. C. Lyall "emi- 
nently conservative, otherwise good natured and quite willing to fall in 
with the whims of their incomprehensible rulers .... [they] are the 
most easily governed [people] in the world if you don't touch their 
worship, and don't tax them grievously." 1 

Certainly beyond rioting at times when their religion is molested, 
they toil and even starve without a murmur, much less a rising against 
the government which in such times labors to provide relief. Of late 
years only, has there been manifested a tendency toward outbursts of a 
political nature, and these have been confined almost without exception 
to the populace of the large cities. 

Among the upper classes there have been, it would seem, three 
prevailing types of attitude. The first is represented by an article in 
the Jam e Jamshed, a, Gujarati daily of Bombay, of October 31, 1887. 
It read: 

There is no doubt that the natives of India are loyal to the backbone, 
and they would not shrink to die, if needs be for the British, but if the ruling 
race -were to sympathize more closely with the native public, every native 
from end to end of India would think it would be his sacred duty to fight for 
the supremacy of the British rule in India. 2 

1 Sir Mortimer Durand, Life of Sir A. C. Lyall, p. 227. 

2 Voice of India, V (1887), 585. 



14 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The second is a more lukewarm feeling, which, while not amounting 
to out and out aversion, is discontented. The following specimen is 
from the Amrita Bazar Patrika, a Hindu weekly published in English, 
at Calcutta. The date is November 6, 1884. 

The rough insulting and often brutal conduct of many of the ruling race 
notoriously tends to alienate the minds of the Indians. But yet that only 
adds salt to the wound — the wound itself being due to some other cause. The 
real and substantial reason why the Indians do not feel friendly towards the 
English is the unequal political status of the two. And so long as natives are 
not allowed to share in the administration of the country on equal and impor- 
tant terms with the English, so long lukewarmness and jealousy would be the 
result. 1 

The third type of opinion is represented by the aphorism, " It would 
be better for the people of India to be governed by their own corrupt 
countrymen than by the however angelic European 'leeches.'" 2 

In this connection there is an important distinction to be noted 
between liking for, or devotion to, English rule as such and preference 
for it over against the domination by the czar or other representative of 
European imperialism. 3 The following selections from the native press 
of the 1880's are in point. 

On February 2, 1885, the Indian Nation, a Calcutta weekly, said: 

A successful invasion of the country by the Russians would mean to the 
English the loss of a certain amount of revenue and a certain number of appoint- 
ments. To the Indians it would mean either the loss of life or the loss of 

everything which makes life worth living The English may afford to 

lose India. We cannot afford to exchange English government for Russian/ 

The Indian Mirror, a Calcutta daily, on March 10, 1885, wrote: 

When the genius of the oriental races frets and chafes under the silken 
chains of British rule, the mildest despotism on the face of the earth, imagine 
what would be their fate under the iron fetters and terrible knout with which 
Russia tames her refractory subjects. 5 

The Swadeshi Mitram, a Tamul weekly of Madras, on January 19, 1885, 
said: "There is nothing more despotic in Europe than the government 
of Russia. We should all unite in our prayer to protect us from the 
scourge of Russia." 6 

1 Voice of India, II (1884), 699. « Voice of India, III (1885), 60. 

2 S. N. Singh, op. tit., p. 606. 5 Ibid., p. 107. 
sjohn D. Rees, The Real India, p. 189. 6 Ibid., p. 65. 



INTRODUCTION 15 

In general the Mohammedans have been better reconciled than the 
Hindus to English rule. This difference has been generally ascribed to 
the backwardness of the Mohammedans and the relative fewness of the 
educated individuals among them, a condition which led them to follow 
the guidance of Sir Ahmed Khan and feel that their best interests were 
to make common cause with the English, as an offset to the competition 
of the Hindus. On the whole this view is probably true, for with the 
spread of education in recent years among the Mohammedans the 
distinction seems to be passing. 

Another significant aspect of the attitude of the natives, is the 
personal feeling for the reigning monarch. It has been one of the most 
important functions of His Majesty to issue from his seclusion to dazzle 
his Indian subjects into enthusiastic loyalty. The proclamation of the 
royal title at a great durbar in 1877 on the eve of the Afghan War, 
when India was restless and almost aquiver, and the visit of the King 
and Queen to India, in 191 1, to assume their titles at the grand durbar 
at Delhi are but two instances of the King being used effectively as a 
trump card to play upon the peculiar oriental mental weakness for the 
personal element in government. 



CHAPTER II 

THE TRANSFER OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 
TO THE CROWN 

The mutiny of 1858 

The transfer of the government of India to the Crown 
Reasons 

Pro, Mr. Bright 
Contra, Colonel Sykes 
India Bill No. I 
India Bill No. II 
India Bill No. Ill 
The government established by the act of 1858 
In England 

The English electorate, the ultimate source of power 

Parliament 

The Cabinet 

The new secretary of state for India 

His powers 
The Council of India 
In India 

The governor-general 

Powers and restraints 
His Executive Council 
Administration 

The secretariat 
Provincial administration 
Types of provinces 
The presidencies 
The lieutenant-governorships 
The chief-commissionerships 
Regulation 
Non-regulation 
Subprovincial administration 
The district officer 
His functions 
Executive 
Judicial 
Other district officials 
Subdivisions of the district 
Municipalities 
Villages 
Legislation 
The Queen's Proclamation of 1858 

16 



TRANSFER OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE CROWN 17 

In 1857 came the mutiny. Its dramatic horrors aroused the English 
public and before the flames of the revolt were more than fairly under 
control, and while the Rani of Jansi was still in the field and Tantia 
Topi was eluding his English pursuers, Lord Palmerston on February 12, 
1858, introduced a bill for transferring the government of India from the 
East India Company to the Crown. 

There had for several years before been a growing feeling in England 
that the anomaly of governing a vast empire like India by a trading 
company, even under a cursory supervision by Parliament, ought to be 
ended. Even in 1853 the sentiment had become so strong that when 
the charter was renewed it was only until Parliament should order 
otherwise, and not for a period of twenty years as had been the previous 
practice since 1793. The trade monopoly of the East India Company 
in India had already been abolished in 18 13. 

The decisive reason for action in 1858 can be found in the conviction 
that all was not right in the government of India, engendered by the 
mutiny, and that it was high time something be done. John Bright in 
his speech of June 24, 1858, made the most powerful presentation of the 
reasons why men felt that "the government of India had not been a 
good government; that grave errors — if not grievous crimes — had been 
committed in that country." 1 

His charges against the Company were fourfold. He asserted that 

(1) "the industry of the people of India had been grievously neglected"; 

(2) "that there was great reason for complaint with respect to the 
administration of justice"; (3) "that with regard to the wars entered 
into by the Indian government there was much of which the people of 
England had reason to be ashamed"; (4) " that there was also a general 
impression that the expenditure of the East Indian government was 
excessive; and that it had been proved before more than one committee 
that the taxes imposed upon the people of India were onerous to the 
last degree." 2 

Of these facts only the mutiny, he contended, was needed to afford 
convincing proof, and a change was necessary. His specific complaints 
against the Company on behalf of India present a strong indictment of 
its conduct of affairs. He charged that — 

throughout almost all the presidencies, and throughout those presidencies 
most of which had been longest under British rule, the cultivators of the soil, 
the great body of the population of India, are in a condition of great impover- 
ishment, of great dejection, and of great suffering The taxes of India 

1 Parliamentary Debates, N.S., Vol. CLI (1858), col. 331. 2 Ibid., col. 332. 



1 8 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

are more onerous and oppressive than the taxes of any other country in the 

world Industry is neglected to a greater extent probably than is the 

case in any other country in the world which has been for any length of time 
under what is termed a civilized and Christian government ' 

He asserted that India was too vast a country to be under a trading 
company and concluded with a forceful peroration on England's obliga- 
tion to India saying: 

You may govern India if you like for the good of England, but the good of 

England must come through the channel of the good of India The 

people of India do not like us but they scarcely know where to turn if we leave 
them. They are sheep literally without a shepherd. They are people whom 
you have subdued and who have the highest and strongest claims upon you, 
claims which you cannot forget, claims which if you do not act upon, you 
may rely upon it that if there be a judgment for nations — as I believe there is — 
as for individuals, our children at no distant generation must pay the penalty 
which we have purchased by neglecting our duty to the population of India. 2 

The defenders of the East India Company were hard put to it for a 
defence. John Stuart Mill wrote a paper in behalf of the Company. 3 
A petition was drawn up and duly presented. Its contents were largely 
a denial of the charges of misgovernment and responsibility for the 
mutiny. It lacked any positive argument for continuing the existing 
system of government by the Company. 

In Parliament Colonel Sykes did his best. His contentions were 
that England should continue the Company's government out of grati- 
tude to it for adding such an empire to England. For the rest, like the 
petition, his arguments were largely negative, seeking to clear th*e Com- 
pany rather than establish a really strong case for its superior merits as 
a governing power. 

The Company's government, he asserted, was of the best. 4 He 
contended that the taking over of the government would violate the 
popular wishes as expressed by the petition. If Parliament were to 
control, the natives would be obliged to appeal to it for redress of griev- 
ances, and would never be able to obtain it owing to the pressure of 
public business. The Company was in no way responsible for the 
mutiny. It had failed in no point in efficient execution of its duties. 
The Court of Directors had always discouraged wars and maintained 
the rights of the people of India. 

1 Parliamentary Debates, N. S., Vol. CLI (1858), col. 335. 2 Ibid., cols. 346, 352. 

3 Sir Courtney Ilbert, The Government of India (1015), p. 94. 

4 Parliamentary Debates, 3d. Ser., Vol. CLI (1858), cols. 2172-74. 



TRANSFER OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE CROWN 19 

The mainspring of the opposition to the transfer of India to the 
control of the Crown was really the loss of the patronage it involved, 
but the interests affected were not sufficiently strong to block the move- 
ment. 1 Parliament proceeded to the task of accomplishing the transfer. 

The most important provisions of Palmerston's bill were a home 
administration to consist of a "President and a council for the affairs 
of India." 2 It was to comprise eight members nominated by the Crown, 
and qualified by having been directors of the East India Company, or by 
service or residence in India. Their term was to be eight years, two 
retiring every two years. The bill passed its second reading by a vote 
of 318 to 173 on February 18, 1858. On February 19, Palmerston was 
turned out on the "Conspiracy to Murder Bill." So ended India Bill 
No. I. 

Disraeli now came onto the scene as chancellor of the exchequer in 
Lord Derby's ministry, and as he told Parliament, because "Sir, the vote 
of the eighteenth of February by which the House of Commons recently 
elected declared by an overwhelming majority that in their opinion the 
government of India should be transferred from the East India Company 
to Her Majesty," 3 appeared conclusive; he proceeded on March 26, 
1858, to introduce a new government of India bill, which received the 
designation of India Bill No. II. 

Its provisions were as florid as Palmerston's had been simple. 4 
A minister of the Crown with the rank and duties of a secretary of state 
was to be president of a council of India which was to comprise eighteen 
members. One-half of these were to be nominated by the Crown. The 
other nine were to be elected, five by the citizens of London, Manchester, 
Liverpool, Glasgow, and Belfast, and four by holders of one thousand 
pounds of East India Company stock, or two thousand pounds of stock 
in Indian railways or other Indian public works, and those who had 
been in the service, civil or military, of the government of India for ten 
years, either in India or in England. 

The ridicule of the opposition held the measure in abeyance until 
the Easter recess. When Parliament reassembled, the insecure ministry 
tacitly dropped the bill and availed itself of Lord John Russel's suggestion 
that owing to the objections raised to Disraeli's measure, the House 
should proceed by resolutions. 

1 C. Redding, "East Indian Affairs," Colburn's New Monthly Magazine, CXII 
(1858), 251. 

2 Sir C. Ilbert, loc. cit. 

3 Parliamentary Debates, 3d Ser. (1858), Vol. CXLIX, col. 818. « Ibid. 



20 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

Fourteen resolutions were accordingly laid before Parliament. 1 On 
April 30, 1858, the discussion of the first was begun, which read "that 
it is expedient to transfer the government of India to the Crown." 2 
This was carried. In its wake, however, came the thirteen others. On 
May 3, the second, providing for a secretary of state for India, was 
passed. Finally, however, as the discussion "seemed likely to drag out 
a septennial Parliament to the close of its natural existence, " the patience 
of the House of Commons became exhausted and leave was given to 
bring in a new measure, India Bill No. III. 

The new law was introduced by Lord Ellenborough on June 17, 1858, 
the day on which the sixth resolution was finally agreed to. It passed 
its first reading without a division, but before its second reading Lord 
Ellenborough had resigned in consequence of his dispatch censuring Lord 
Canning's Oudh Proclamation. Lord Stanley succeeded him as president 
of the Board of Control, and took over the direction of the bill. The 
second reading was carried on June 25, and on July 8 the bill with sundry 
minor amendments was passed. It was carried through Lords with 
which an agreement was finally reached on July 30, and received the 
royal assent on August 2, 1858. Its substance was promulgated by 
Lord Canning at a great durbar held at Allahabad on November 1, 1858. 

The form of government finally prescribed after all these vicissitudes 
of party squabble was very closely patterned after that of the old 
Company. The stockholders were deposed, but Parliament fell heir to 
such functions as they had performed. The Court of Directors was 
allowed to sing its swan song by naming seven of the fifteen members of 
the new Council of India, which took the place of the old Board of Control, 
under the presidency of a secretary of state for India. The rest of the 
system remained much the same, save in the matter of names, and in 
many cases especially in India even these were unchanged. 

It is worth while, however, to take a hasty survey of the situation 
created by the law of 1858, for it is important to secure as clear and as 
vivid a conception as possible of the main outlines of the government 
thus established for India, since it is fundamental to a comprehension of 
the later developments. 3 

1 These fourteen resolutions as laid before Parliament are printed in Parliamentary 
Debates, 3d Ser., Vol. CXLIX (1858), cols. 2207-10. 

2 British Quarterly Review, XXVIII, 199. 

3 The following summary pretends to be no more than an attempt to furnish as 
concise a basis as possible for a study of the subsequent movements. It would be 
futile and unnecessary to attempt to do over again the detailed work which Sir 
Courtney Ubert, in his Government of India, has done so well. 



TRANSFER OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE CROWN 21 

In theory the government established over India in 1858 traced its 
ultimate authority to the British electorate, which expressed such 
platitudinous opinions as it had through the medium of its Parliament, 
which as a general rule preferred anything else to yawning through 
the annual presentation of the Indian budget. 

Actually the ultimate authority over the government of India 
devolved upon the secretary of state in council, under the general 
oversight of the Cabinet, supplemented by a few, as a rule a very few, 
of the members of Parliament who for one reason or another took an 
interest in India. Parliament did, however, retain some very powerful 
checks, which in case of need it could resort to. Any orders directing the 
commencing of hostilities in India must be reported to Parliament within 
three months or if it were not in session within one month after its return. 

No addition to the establishment of secretary of state in council, 
nor to the salaries of the persons of that establishment, could be made 
except by order of His Majesty in Council. Even these orders were to 
be laid before both houses of Parliament within fourteen days, or if not 
in session within fourteen days after its next meeting. No expense for 
military operations beyond external frontiers except for preventing or 
repelling actual invasions of His Majesty's Indian possessions or under 
other sudden and urgent necessity were to be charged on Indian revenues 
without the consent of Parliament. 

Within the first fourteen days after May 1, in which Parliament was 
sitting, the secretary of state in council must lay before it an itemized 
account of the financial year preceding, estimates for the year to come, 
debts and resources of the government of India, and a list of the establish- 
ment of the secretary of state in council. 

Moreover, 1 although in actual practice Parliament was sometimes a 
sleepy guardian of Indian interests, the feeling that it might call him to 
account at any time, certainly led the secretary of state and his council 
to exercise with some straitness, both the specific powers of control with 
which they were particularly invested and also the general power of 
superintendence which the Government of India Act gave them. 

Turning to the actual provisions of the act, it created a fifth secretary 
of state, known as the secretary of state for India. He and his under- 
secretaries were to be paid from the revenues of India. He was to sign all 
orders and communications to the government of India. He was to be 
the head of the part of the Indian administration located in England 
and the supervisor of that in India. 

1 "Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, p. 33. East India, 1918. 



22 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

As a member of the Cabinet he was responsible to and represented 
the supreme power of Parliament. He was to perform all acts formerly 
performed by the East India Company Court of Directors, or Court of 
Proprietors, either with or without the sanction of the Board of Control, 
in relation to the government or to the revenues and the officers and 
servants of the Company. He was also to wield the powers formerly 
exercised by the Board of Control. He had to countersign all warrants 
or writings under His Majesty's Royal Sign Manual, previously counter- 
signed by the president of the Commission for the Affairs of India, for 
the removal or dismissal of persons holding office, employment, or com- 
mission, civil or military. 

Except for new additions or increase* in salaries, the secretary of 
state had the power to appoint, promote, or remove any officer in his 
establishment, usually known as the India Office. Without consulting 
the Court of India, the secretary of state might send directly all com- 
munications formerly issued or received by the Committee of Secrecy of 
the East India Company (dating from 1784) except those requiring a 
majority vote of his Council. 1 In practice these delicate transactions 
were usually referred to the Political and Secret Committee of the 
Council of India. 

The secretary of state was made the president of the Council of India 
with the power to vote. He received all dispatches from the governor- 
general. He could appoint a member as vice-president in his absence, 
and could remove such appointee. He directed the holding of meetings 
of the Council. His approval was required for all acts done in his 
absence. He constituted committees of the Council for the more con- 
venient transaction of business. 2 He directed what departments of the 
India Office were to be under each of these committees and arranged the 
manner of the transaction of business by them. 

This Council of India was the counterpart of the old Board of Control. 
Its primary function was to advise the secretary of state. It was com- 
posed of fifteen members, eight of whom were to be nominated by the 

J A majority vote in the Council of India was required on questions of: (1) 
approximating revenues or property; (2) issuing securities for money; (3) sale or 
mortgage of property; (4) contracts; (5) alteration of salaries; (6) furlough rules; 
(7) Indian appointments; (8) appointment of natives of India to offices reserved for 
the Indian Civil Service; (9) provisional appointments to posts on the governor- 
general's Council and to reserved offices. 

2 These committees of the Council of India were: (1) finance; (2) political 
and secret; (3) military; (4) revenue and statistics; (5) public works; (6) stores; 
(7) judicial and public. 



TRANSFER OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE CROWN 23 

Crown, and seven by the members themselves. 1 A majority of nine in 
the Council were to be persons who had served or resided at least ten 
years in India, and unless they had been officers in the home establish- 
ment they must not have left India more than ten years prior to their 
appointment. They were to hold office during good behavior and were 
removable only by a joint address of Parliament. The members were 
disqualified from sitting in Parliament. Their salary was to be 1,200 
pounds, and to be paid from the revenues of India. After ten years' 
service on the Council, or sooner if overtaken by infirmity, they could 
retire on a pension of 500 pounds. 

Upon "the secretary of state in council," as the law expressed the 
combination of the secretary of state for India, and his advisory body , 
"the Council of India," devolved nearly all of the actual oversight of 
governing India. Under the direction of the secretary of state, the Coun- 
cil of India was to transact the business of the government of India in 
England and conduct correspondence. Parts of the revenues of India 
were to be paid into the Bank of England to the account of the secretary 
of state to be applied by the Council for the purposes of the act. The 
secretary of state might sue or be sued in India or England as a body 
corporate. All orders proposed by the secretary of state had to be 
submitted to a meeting of the Council or deposited in the council-room 
for seven days before a meeting of the Council unless they were secret 
orders. On certain things already mentioned a majority vote was 
required. 

The Council of India 2 was intended, however, to be no more than a 
consultative body, without power of initiative and only a limited power 
of veto. Each of the committees, into which it was divided by the secre- 
tary of state, corresponded to and worked in conjunction with one of the 
secretaries and departments of the permanent staff of the India Office. 

In India itself few changes were made. Parliament and the Council 
of India were substituted for the Court of Directors and the Board of 
Control, and things went on very much as before. In India thereafter, 
however, all the powers of government were derived in theory from the 
English Parliament. Their focal point was the governor-general (com- 
monly called the viceroy after the Queen's Proclamation of November 1, 
1858). He had formerly been appointed by the Court of Directors with 

1 In the first Council of India the old Court of Directors were given the privilege 
of nominating seven of the members but thereafter these seven were to be chosen by 
the Council of India itself. 

2 Sir C. Ilbert, op. cit. (191 5), p. 137. 



24 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

the approval of the Crown. Henceforth he was to be appointed by the 
Crown on the advice of the prime minister. Custom fixed his term at 
five years. He was the head of the government and had general over- 
sight over its operations. 

The governor-general was under several restraints. He must report 
constantly and diligently to the secretary of state in council an exact 
particular of all advices or intelligence and of all transactions and matters 
coming to the knowledge of the governor-general in council and relating 
to the government, commerce, revenues, or affairs of India. Every 
measure taken by him had to also receive the approval of a majority 
of his Executive Council, although in cases of emergency he might over- 
ride it. 

The function of this Executive Council was to assist the governor- 
general and to check any tendency to despotism on his part. It con- 
sisted of four members whose advice it was necessary for him to seek, 
even on the minutia of routine business. It was the theory that the 
public business was transacted by the governor-general and his whole 
Council. 1 Consequently, every case had to pass through the hands of 
every member. Disputed questions were decided by a majority vote, 
the governor-general having a casting vote. The result was that much 
of the work was done many times over and more not done at all. That 
the system had worked at all was due to the comparative smallness of 
the business in the early days. 

The actual work of the administration was divided up into depart- 
ments. At the head of each was a secretary, under the oversight of the 
governor-general in council. The departments were 2 (i) the military, 
(2) foreign affairs, (3) the legislative, (4) finance, (5) home, (6) revenue. 3 

Below the imperial governments were the governments of the 
provinces. In 1858 there were three types of these, the presidencies, 
the lieutenant-governorships, and the chief-commissionerships. In the 
first category were Fort St. George (Madras) and Bombay. They had 
governors who enjoyed the privilege of communicating directly with the 
secretary of state. Previously they had been appointed by the Court of 
Directors with the approval of the Crown. Henceforth they were to be 

1 Sir Henry S. Cunningham, Lord Canning, pp. 192-93. 

2 Sir W. W. Hunter, Lord Mayo, p. 83. 

3 In later years there were added the following departments: agriculture, public 
works (1868), commerce and industry, education. There were also later special 
departments outside but attached to one of the main departments. Among these 
were posts and telegraphs, surveys, railways, forestry. 



TRANSFER OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE CROWN 25 

appointed by the Crown. The governors were usually English states- 
men and held office for five years. They were assisted by executive 
councils of two members, who were also appointed by the Crown in 
the same fashion as the governor. As qualification the members must 
have been, at the time of their appointment, at least twelve years in the 
service of the Crown in India. In cases of emergency the governors 
might override their councils. In spite of the privilege of communicating 
directly with the secretary of state in case of need, the presidencies were 
under the supervision and direction of the governor-general. 

Second were the provinces under lieutenant governors, authorized 1 
by act of Parliament in 1835 and the Charter of 1853. r Henceforth the 
lieutenant governors were to be appointed by the governor-general, 
subject to the approbation of the Crown. The lieutenant governors 
must have served at least ten years in India. The extent of their author- 
ity was declared and limited by the secretary of state in council. In 
1858 the lieutenant-governorships were Bengal, originally a presidency, 
and the Northwestern Provinces. 

The third type of province was that of the chief-commissionership. 2 
In theory the chief commissioners were merely administrators for the 
governor-general of the executive government of a tract of territory. 
They were appointed by the governor-general without restriction. They 
had powers in practice as wide as those of the lieutenant governors; 
they had no executive councils. 

There was a still further classification of the provinces, namely into 
regulation and non-regulation provinces. The regulation provinces 
were those in which the regulations enacted by the executive authority 
in Fort William (Bengal), Fort St. George (Madras), and Bombay were 
applied in full force. The non-regulation provinces were those in which 
only such parts of these regulations as were deemed suitable by the 
governor-general in council applied. The non-regulation provinces in 
1858 were the Punjab, Lower Burma, Oudh, the Central Provinces, and 
Assam. 

In all the provincial administrations were departments, each with 
its secretary, corresponding to those of the imperial government for which 
they served as channels for information and orders. 3 The provinces 
except Madras were subdivided into divisions, each under an official. 
These were in turn made up of five or six districts. At the head of each 
district was a district officer. 

1 Sir W. W. Hunter, Gazetteer of India, IV, 32. 2 Ibid., pp. 33, 34, 47. 

3 Sir Bampfylde Fuller, Studies of Indian Life and Sentiment, p. 242. 



26 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

These district officers were the pivots on which the whole adminis- 
tration turned. The districts varied greatly in size and population. 
The title of the officer also varied. In the regulation provinces he was 
called the collector and magistrate. In the chief-commissionerships he 
was known as the deputy commissioner. The district officer embodied 
the power of the English government, as far as the people were concerned, 
and it was to him they looked for redress and aid. He was at once the 
principal revenue officer and chief magistrate. This dual capacity was 
a relic apparently of the old native practice adopted by Cornwallis in 
Bengal, and later applied to the other provinces as they came under 
British rule. 

The primary function of the district officer was the supervision of 
the land and land revenues. In this connection the ardor of his labors 
varied according as to whether the system of land tenure with which he 
had to deal was ryotwari, under which the revenue was paid by 
many thousands of cultivators, or zamindari, under which the revenue 
was paid by a comparatively few big landowners who sublet their 
holdings. The district officer also had charge of the other taxes and 
sources of revenue. He was expected to keep an oversight over the 
general well-being of the people and perform the functions of general 
factotum of the government, superintending in a general way public 
works, jails, sanitation, and other governmental activities. He was 
expected to make numerous and frequent reports to his superiors on all 
manner of subjects. It was upon his shoulders that much of the burden 
of subsequent enlargement of the functions of the government fell, 
both in connection with the enlargement of old activities and the addition 
of new ones, such as forestry and education. 

On the magisterial side the district officer was responsible for the 
peace of the districts intrusted to him and the suppression of crime. 
He had a general control over the working of the police, although the 
nominal direction of this service was a distinct branch of the government. 
As a criminal judge the district officer had the power of imprisoning for 
a term up to two years, and of imposing fines up to 1,000 rupees. He 
also supervised the work of all the other magistrates of his district. 
In the non-regulation provinces his criminal jurisdiction was more exten- 
sive, reaching to all cases not punishable with death. He could inflict 
sentences of transportation or imprisonment up to seven years. Other- 
wise the functions of the district officers were approximately the same 
in all the provinces. 



TRANSFER OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE CROWN 27 

In addition to the district officer there were other district officials, 
more or less under his supervision. Chief among these were the superin- 
tendent of police, the civil surgeon, and later the forest officer. 

Below the district were the subdivisions, under junior officers. 
Still farther down was the village, 1 the primeval institution of India but 
little altered by the vicissitudes of Mughal, Mahratta, or English rule. 
Each village had a number of hereditary native officials. The most 
important was the headman, usually referred to as the patel, who collected 
the revenue and in Madras was a petty magistrate and civil judge; the 
patwin, or accountant, in charge of the village accounts, registers of 
holdings, and records connected with the land revenue; and the chauki- 
dar, or watchman, the rural policeman. 

Of relatively far less importance in 1858 than the villages, but from 
the point of view of later developments in self-government of rather 
more significance, were the municipalities. These fell into two sharply 
distinguished categories. The first comprised the three great presidency 
cities, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. The second included all the 
smaller cities and towns. Cities and towns existed in India from remote 
antiquity, but the form of government under which those of British 
India have come to be administered is an exotic importation direct from 
England. It is one of the great examples in history of a foreign social 
institution successfully transplanted into a strange soil. The English 
municipal system was first introduced into the presidency cities and thence 
comparatively recently was extended to the lesser towns of the provinces. 

In 1687 2 James II conferred a signal favor on the East India Company 
by delegating to them the power of establishing by charter a corporation 
and a Mayor's Court in Madras. The scheme was due to Sir Josia 
Child, the celebrated governor of the Company, who regarded it as the 
only solution of the difficult question of town conservancy. The new 
civil government was constituted on the most approved English pattern 
with a mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, who were empowered to levy 
taxes for the building of a guildhall, a jail, and a schoolhouse; for " such 
further ornaments and edifices as shall be thought convenient for the 
honor, interest, ornament, security and defense," of the corporation and 
inhabitants; and for the payment of the salaries of the municipal officer, 
including a schoolmaster. 

The mayor and alderman were made a Court of Record with power 
to try both civil and criminal cases. Nor were the ornamental features 

1 Sir W. W. Hunter, op. tit., p. 53. 2 Ibid., pp. 284-85. 



28 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

of municipal life forgotten. On solemn occasions the mayor was to 
have carried before him two "silver maces gilt, not exceeding three feet 
and a half in length ; and the Mayor and Aldermen robed in scarlet serge 
gowns, were to ride on horse-back in the same order as is used by the 
Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, having their horses decently 
furnished with saddles, bridles, and other trimmings." 

Notwithstanding this pomp and circumstance the people strenu- 
ously resisted the imposition of anything in the nature of a direct tax. 
The town hall, schools, and sewers which were to have been the first 
work of the new corporation could not be undertaken, and the mayor 
had to ask for permission to levy an octroi duty on certain articles of 
consumption that he might provide the necessary funds for cleansing 
the streets. 

In 1726 a mayor's court with aldermen but no burgesses was estab- 
lished by royal charter in each of the three presidency towns, mainly 
according to the practice already existing in Madras; but these courts 
were intended to exercise judicial rather than administrative functions. 
The first statutory enforcement of municipal administration was con- 
tained in the Charter Act of 1793. This act empowered the governor- 
general to appoint justices of the peace for the presidency towns from 
among the Company's and other British inhabitants. In addition to 
their judicial duties, the justices of the peace were expressly authorized 
to provide for scavenging, watching and repairing the streets, the 
expenditure on which was to be defrayed by an assessment on houses 
and lands. Between 1840 and 1853 the municipal constitutions were 
widened and the elective principle was introduced to a very limited 
extent; but in 1856 a different policy prevailed and all municipal 
functions were concentrated in a body corporate consisting of three 
nominated and salaried members. 

Outside the presidency towns, Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay, there 
was practically no attempt at municipal legislation before 1842. 1 In 
that year an act was passed applicable only to Bengal, to enable the 
inhabitants of any place of public resort or residence to make better 
provision for purposes connected with public health and convenience. 
This act was far in advance of its times. Based upon the voluntary 
principle, it could take effect in no place except on the application of 
two-thirds of the householders, and as the taxation enforceable under it 
was of a direct character, the law nowhere met with popular acceptance. 
It was introduced into one town and there the inhabitants, when called 
1 Sir W. W. Hunter, op. tit., p. 286. 



TRANSFER OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE CROWN 29 

upon to pay the tax, not only refused but prosecuted the collector for 
trespass when he attempted to levy it. The next attempt at municipal 
legislation for country towns was made in 1850 and is reserved for 
later treatment. 

On a par in importance with the municipalities, for the purposes of 
this study, was the legislative function of the government of India. 1 
The act of 1858 made no provision regarding it, and the practices of the 
"John Company" passed over into the government of the Crown. 

In 1 85s 2 legislative activity was confined to the council of the 
governor-general of India, specially enlarged on such occasions to twelve 
members of whom, however, seldom more than seven could be mustered 
to the meetings. Four of the twelve were nominated by the governors 
of the four provinces, Bengal, Bombay, Madras, and the Northwestern 
Provinces. Two were judges, namely the chief justice and one of the 
puisne judges of the Supreme Court of Calcutta. This body was in no 
degree intended to be an echo, however faint, of the English Parliament. 
Its function was created merely to enact into law the regulations brought 
before it. The method of its selection was anything but conducive to 
giving it a representative character, but none the less it had developed a 
disturbing propensity for turning itself into what certain of the Lords 
in Parliament were pleased to call a "petty parody of a Parliament." 3 

1 Ibid., p. 129. The origin of the legislative function in the activities of the 
English in India, was as old virtually as the Company. The earliest charters 
authorized the making of such new laws as were needful and not repugnant to the laws 
of England. On the assumption of the diwani by the Company in 1772, a series of 
instructions were promulgated as the basis of administration, but these were issued 
under the authority of the Mughal emperor at Delhi, not of Parliament. 

In 1773 the Regulating Act empowered the governor-general in council to make — 
subject to registration with the Supreme Court and its approval — rules and regula- 
tions for the government of the settlement of Fort William (Bengal) and its subordinate 
factories. An act of 1781 authorized the framing of rules without reference to the 
Supreme Court, but subject to the approval of the King in council. In 1 783 a fresh 
set of regulations for legislation were drawn up by Lord Cornwallis and collected into 
a code. Acts of 1800 for Madras, and 1807 for Bombay, and 1803 for the Northwestern 
Provinces extended to the governor in council of each of those provinces similar 
powers. 

The act of 1833 withdrew them, however, and vested the whole legislative 
authority in the governor-general in council, strengthened by the addition of a lawyer 
who was not to belong to the service of the Company and whose duties were confined 
to legislation. It was authorized to legislate for all persons, places, and courts within 
the territories of the Company, and, subject to the disallowment of the Court of 
Directors, its acts were to have the weight of acts of Parliament. This embryo legisla- 
ture was enlarged by the act of 1853 to the form it possessed in 1858. 

2 Parliamentary Debates, 3d Ser., Vol. CLXI (1861), col. 1687. 
ilbid., CLXII (1861), col. 1153. 



30 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

One other event of the year of 1858, although not strictly a piece of 
legislation, proved the center of so much discussion and agitation in later 
years that it must be mentioned. This was the Queen's Proclamation 1 
which was published in India at a grand durbar at Allahabad on Novem- 
ber 1, announcing the transfer of the government to the Crown. 

Only one clause has been of real significance for the development of 
self-government. It was: 

And it is Our further will that so far as may be, Our subjects of whatever 
Race or Creed, be freely and impartially admitted to Offices in Our Service, 
the duties of which they may be qualified by their education, ability and 
integrity duly to discharge. 2 

Differences of opinion as to the interpretation and application of this 
policy have been at the bottom of much of the discontent felt by many 
of the educated class and thus have been one of the factors in creating a 
demand among them for self-government. 

The pretensions of the Proclamation to the appellation of the Magna 
Charta of India so frequently applied to it rests on its clauses promising 
amnesty to all except those who had directly taken part in the murder 
of British subjects, religious tolerance for all, and equal opportunity in 
the service of the government for natives and whites so far as their 
respective abilities warranted. 

1 The Proclamation was the formal announcement of the assumption of the 
government of India by the Queen. Incidentally it strove to conciliate the natives 
of Oudh, who had been thrown into a panic by an ill-phrased proclamation of Lord 
Canning which ordered the forfeiture of all the lands of all persons guilty of rebellion 
or waging war against the Queen or the government, or aiding therein. This would 
have meant the confiscation of most of the lands of Oudh, and something was necessary 
to reassure the landlords and allay the unrest subsequent to the mutiny as far as 
possible. 

2 Voice of India, II (1884), 672. 



CHAPTER III 

THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1861 

Reasons for the act of 1861 

Differences between Madras and the imperial government of India over 

the income tax 
Question as to the validity of the regulations in the non-regulation 

provinces 
The precocity of the Legislative Council 
The provisions of the act 

The Executive Council of the governor-general 

The reorganization effected by Lord Canning 
Limitations on the Imperial Legislative Council 

Definition of its powers 
Recreation of the legislative councils for Madras and Bombay 

Reasons 
Admission of natives to the legislative councils 
Reasons 

Gulf created by the mutiny 

Need felt for means of ascertaining native opinion 
Native opinion of the innovation 
The working of the provision 
Recapitulation of the features of the act of 1861 
Character and general working of the councils 
Significance of the Indian Councils Act of 1861 

The passage of the act of 1858 and the assumption of the govern- 
ment of India by the Crown speedily, however, revealed defects in the 
system. 1 The unworkableness of the Executive Council would of 
itself have necessitated some speedy reform. Trouble began over a 
varied series of questions. 2 In Madras a dispute arose between the 
imperial government and Sir Charles Trevelyan, governor of that 
presidency, as to whether Mr. Wilson's distasteful income tax should 
be enforced in that province. Bombay too joined its voice to the 
protests of Madras. There was also difficulty over the law requiring 
a license even from Europeans to carry arms. To further complicate 
matters the indigo planters raised a controversy over their relations 

1 "Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, p. 52, East India, 1918. 

2 Sir Henry S. Cunningham, Earl Canning, pp. 182-83. 

3i 



32 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

with the ryots who cultivated the plantations for them. A legal wrangle 
about the validity of the regulations then being enforced by mere execu- 
tive authority in the non-regulation provinces added another problem 
to those confronting Lord Canning. 1 

The climax was reached when the Legislative Council of the 
governor-general, the precocity of which had been a growing vexa- 
tion and handicap, became presumptuous enough to demand that certain 
correspondence between the secretary of state and the governor-general 
of India should be communicated to it. Some action became impera- 
tive. The explanation of Sir Charles Wood, the secretary of state, for 
the measure, while lacking in completeness, is indicative of the general 
situation. 

He began by explaining the question of the legality of the regula- 
tions, saying: 

The history of legislative power in India is very short. In 1773 the 
governor-general in council was empowered to make regulations for the govern- 
ment of India, and in 1793 those regulations were collected into a code by 
Lord Cornwallis. Similar regulations were applied in 1799 and 1801 to Madras 
and Bombay, and in 1803 they were extended to the Northwestern Provinces. 
The territory of Delhi, however, which was nominally under the sovereignty 
of the Great Mogul, was administered by officers of the government of India, 
and with such good effect that in 181 5, when Lord Hastings acquired certain 
provinces, he determined that they should be administered in the same way 
by commissioners appointed by the government. The same system has been 
applied to the Punjab, Scinde, Pegu, and the various acquisitions made in 
India since that date. The laws and regulations under which they are adminis- 
tered are framed either by the governor-general in council or by the lieutenant 
governors or commissioners, as the case may be, and approved by the governor- 
general. This difficult mode of passing ordinances for the two classes of 
provinces constitutes the distinction between the regulation and non-regulation 
provinces, the former being those subject to the old regulations, and the latter 
those which are administered in the somewhat irregular manner, which as I 
once stated commenced in 181 5. There is much difference of opinion as to 
the legality of the regulations adopted under the latter system, and Sir Barnes 
Peacock has declared that they are illegal unless passed by the legislative 
councils. 2 

He next took up the difficulty consequent upon the supremacy of 
the Legislative Council of the governor-general at Calcutta. In regard 
to this he said, by the act of 1833: 

1 "Constitutional Reforms," loc. cit. 

2 Parliamentary Debates, 3d Ser., Vol. CLXIII (May- June, 1861), col. 637. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1861 33 

The whole legislative power and authority of India were centralized in the 
governor-general and Council, with this additional member [the law member]. 
So matters stood in 1853, but great complaints had emanated from other parts 
of India of the centralization of power at Calcutta. The practice was then 
introduced of placing in the governor-general's Council members from different 
parts of India. The tenor of the evidence given before the Committee of 
1852-53 was to point out that the Executive Council alone, even with the 
assistance of the legislative member, was incompetent to perform the increased 
duties which were created by the extension of territory. Mr. M'Leod, a dis- 
tinguished member of the Civil Service of India, and who had acted at Calcutta 
as one of the law commissioners, gave the following evidence before the Com- 
mittee: 

"The governor-general with four members of Council, however highly 
qualified those individuals may be, is not altogether a competent legislature 
for the great empire which we have in India. It seems to me very desirable 
that, in the legislative government of India, there should be one or more persons 
having local knowledge and experience of the minor presidencies; and that it is 
entirely wanting in the legislative government as at present constituted. It 
appears to me that this is one considerable and manifest defect. The governor- 
general and Council have not sufficient leisure and previous knowledge to con- 
duct, in addition to their executive and administrative functions, the whole 
duties of legislation for the Indian Empire It seems to me that it would be 
advisable to enlarge the Legislative Council and have representatives of the 
minor presidencies in it without enlarging the Executive Council, or in any 
way altering its present constitution." 

Mr. Hill, another eminent civil servant, said: "The mode of carrying 

out improvements must be by strengthening the hand of the legislature 

It would be a great improvement if, after the preparation of laws by the execu- 
tive government and its officers, when the legislature met, they had the addi- 
tion to their number of the chief justice and perhaps another judge of the 
Supreme Court, one or two judges of the Sudder Court, and the advocate- 
general, or some other competent persons, so that there should be a more 
numerous deliberative body." 

Turning to the presumptuous demeanor of the Legislative Council, 
he said: 

My intention was in accordance with the opinions I have cited, to give to 
the Council the assistance of local knowledge and legal experience in framing 
laws. The Council, however, quite contrary to my intention, has become a 
sort of debating society, or petty parliament. My own view of its duties is 
expressed in a letter I wrote to Lord Dalhousie in 1853, in which I said: "I 
expect the non-official members of your enlarged Legislative Council to be 
constantly employed as a Committee of Council in working at Calcutta on the 
revision of your laws and regulations." 



34 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

It was certainly a great mistake that a body of twelve members should 
have been established with all the forms and functions of a parliament. They 
have standing orders as numerous as we have; and their effect has been, as 
Lord Canning stated in one of his dispatches, to impede business, cause delay, 
and to induce a council, which ought to be regarded as a body for doing prac- 
tical work, to assume the debating functions of a parliament. In a letter 
which is among the papers upon the table of the House, Mr. Grant bears testi- 
mony to the success which has attended their labours in framing laws; and 
I will quote the words of another able Indian servant to the same effect. He 
says: "If it be assumed that the enlargement of the Council by the addition 
of two judges of the Supreme Court and four councillors of the different 
presidencies of India was designed only as a means of improving the legislation 
of the country, the measure must be regarded as a complete success. The 
Council has effected all that could be expected and may with just pride point 
to the statutes of the last seven years as a triumphant proof that the intention 
of Parliament has been fulfilled." 1 

I think that is a very satisfactory proof that as far as my intentions — 
and what I believe were the intentions of the legislature of this country — 
were concerned, the objects of the change in the position of the governor- 
general's council, when sitting for legislative purposes, have been most 
completely fulfilled. I do not wish to say anything against a body the 
constitution of which I am about to alter, but I think that the general 
opinion, both in India and England, condemned the action of the Council 
when it attempted to discharge functions other than those which I 
have mentioned — when it constituted itself a body for the redress of 
grievances and engaged in discussions which led to no practical result. 
So much has this struck those most competent to form an opinion that 
I find that the first vice-president, Sir Lawrence Peel, expressed a very 
decided opinion against it, and says of the Council, in a short memo- 
randum : 

It has no jurisdiction in the nature of that of a grand inquest of the nation. 
Its functions are purely legislative and are limited even in that respect. It 
is not an Anglo-Indian House of Commons for the redress of grievances to 
refuse supplies, and so forth. 

These obvious objections were pointed out to me by the government of 
India last year, and it was my intention to have introduced a measure upon 
the subject in the course of the session. 2 I felt, however, so much difficulty 
in deciding in what shape the measure should be framed that I deferred its 
proposal until the present year, and Lord Canning, who was very anxious 
that such a measure should be pressed, consented to defer his departure from 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 3d Ser., Vol. CLXIII (May-June, 1861), cols. 637-40. 

2 Ibid., col. 639. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1861 35 

India in order that he with his great experience of the country might introduce 
the change. 1 

The Indian Councils Bill of 1861 was much more detailed than 
that of 1858 and partook to a very great degree of the nature of a con- 
stitution which furnished the foundation of the imperial government 
for the thirty-one years to follow. As such it merits special considera- 
tion. 2 

The act provided that the Excutive Council of the governor- 
general should consist of five ordinary members, three of whom should 
be appointed by the secretary of state in council, a majority of the 
Council concurring. They were to have had at least ten years' service 
under the Company or the Crown. The other two were to be appointed 
by the Crown. One of these two was to be an English or Scotch lawyer of 
experience. The law member was a relic of 1853 and presided over the 
legislative department. Custom fixed their term at five years. The 
secretary of state might appoint the commander-in-chief as an extraor- 
dinary member of the Council, and he regularly did so. 

When the Council sat in either of the provinces, the governor was 
entitled to a seat as an extraordinary member. This resulted in the 
governor of Bengal so sitting for half the year while the Council was 
at Calcutta, and the lieutenant governor of the Punjab for the rest of 
the year while it was at Simla. The Council was empowered to appoint 
a temporary successor to the governor-general in case of his death or 
resignation. By Section 8, the governor-general was given power to 
make rules for the conduct of business in his Executive Council. 

Lord Canning made haste to avail himself of this right to remodel 
his ponderous, impossible Executive Council into the semblance of a 
cabinet in which, instead of everyone doing everything, each member 
was in charge of one or more of the departments of the government. 3 

1 Ibid., col. 640. 

2 The passage of the Indian Councils Act of 1861 through Parliament was as 
follows: 

June 6, introduced and read for the first time. 

June 13, passed second reading without division. 

June 28, passed third reading without division. 

July 1, passed first reading in Lords. 

July 9, passed second reading in Lords. 

July 22, passed third reading in Lords. 

August 1, received the royal assent, Ibid., Vols.CLXIII, CLXIV (1861), index. 

3 W. W. Hunter, Lord Mayo, pp. 81-82. 



36 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The secretary was retained and, as a listener, attended the meetings 
where the affairs of his department were under consideration, but he 
was responsible to the Council member who was the initiating mem- 
ber for the department, responsible for its business, in charge of its 
measures, and represented it in the Council, before which he was bound 
to lay all important measures. 

Under the new allocation of business the governor-general himself 
invariably took the Foreign Department, leaving the Home, the Revenue, 
the Financial, the Military, and the Legislative departments to be 
apportioned among the Council. As business increased in later years 
and new departments were added, they fell to one or the other of the 
members. In practice the finance member has usually held the port- 
folio for the Finance Department; the law member, for the Legislative; 
and the commander-in-chief, for the Military Department. 

The regular meetings were held once a week and as many extra 
ones as the governor-general deemed necessary. 1 The sessions were 
private and informal, the members being forbidden to rise from their 
seats when they addressed the Council. The language was English 2 
although Lord Canning proposed to so conduct business as to allow 
even Indians unacquainted with English to participate. 

For the purposes of legislation the governor-general was to nominate 
not less than six or more than twelve additional members, one-half of 
whom were to be non-officials. Their term was to be two years. The 
advisability of abolishing the Legislative Council had been seriously 
considered but given up. The following is the explanation of Sir 
Charles Wood: 

The present constitution of the Council for Legislative Purposes having 
failed, we have naturally to consider what should be substituted, and in doing 
so we must advert to the two extreme notions with regard to legislation which 
prevail in India. The notion of legislation which is entertained by a native is 
that of a chief or sovereign who makes what laws he pleases. He has little or 
no idea of any distinction between the executive and legislative functions of 
government. A native chief will assemble his nobles around him in the durbar, 
where they freely and frankly express their opinions; but having informed 
himself by their communications, he determines by his own will what shall be 

1 "Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, p. 52, East India, 191S. 

2 How the required use of English affected the natives is illustrated by the alleged 
remark of a Maharajah of the Northwest: "At first I found it very difficult but there 
was the governor-general who elected me and when he raised his hand I raised mine, 
and when he put his hand down, I put. down mine." — Parliamentary Debates, 4th 
Ser., Vol. Ill, col. 95. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1861 37 

done. Among the various proposals which have been made for the government 
of India is one that the power of legislation should rest entirely on the executive 
but that there should be a consultative body; that is that the governor- 
general should assemble from time to time a considerable number of persons 
whose opinions he should hear and by whose opinions he should not be bound; 
and that he should himself consider and decide what measures should be 
adopted. In the last session of Parliament Lord Ellenborough developed a 
scheme approaching this in character in the House of Lords, but Hon. gentle- 
men will see, in the dispatches which have been laid upon the table, that both 
Lord Canning considers this impossible and all the members of his government, 
as well as the members of the Indian Company, concur in the opinion that, in 
the present state of feeling in India, it is quite impossible to revert to a state of 
things in which the executive government alone legislated for the country. 
The opposite extreme is the desire which is natural to Englishmen wherever 
they be — that they should have a representative body to make the laws by 
which they are to be governed. I am sure, however, that everyone who con- 
siders the condition of India will see that it is impossible to constitute such a 
body in that country. You cannot possibly assemble at any one place in 
India persons who shall be the real representatives of the various classes of 
the native population of that empire. It is quite true that when you diminish 
the area over which legislation is to extend you diminish the difficulty of such 
a plan. In Ceylon, which is not more extensive than a large collectorate in 
India, you have a legislative body consisting partly of Englishmen and partly 
of natives, and I do not know that government has worked unsuccessfully, 
but with the extended area with which we have to deal in India it would be 
physically impossible to constitute such a body. The natives who are resident 
in the towns no more represent the resident native population than a highly 
educated native of London, at the present, represents a highland chieftain or a 
feudal baron of half a dozen centuries ago. To talk of a native representation 
is, therefore, to talk of that which is simply and utterly impossible. Then 
comes the question to what extent we can have a representation of the English 
settlers in India. No doubt it would not be difficult to obtain a representation 
of their interests, but I must say that of all governing or legislative bodies none 
is so dangerous or so mischievous as one which represents a dominant race 
ruling over an extended native population. All experience teaches us that 
where a dominant race rules another, the mildest form of government is 
despotism. 1 

Accordingly the Legislative Council was retained, but the presump- 
tuousness of the previous Council was rigidly guarded against by giving 
the governor-general power to make rules for the conduct of its business. 
Furthermore, no business was to be transacted at its meetings but the 

1 Ibid., 3d Ser., Vol. CLXIII (May-June, 1861), cols. 640 et seq. 



38 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

consideration and enactment of measures introduced into the Council 
for enactment. It was not lawful for any member to make or the 
Council to entertain any motion unless for leave to introduce some 
measures or having reference to one already introduced. 

It was not lawful for any member to introduce without the previous 
sanction of the governor-general any measure affecting: (i) the public 
debt or public revenues of India, or by which any charge would be 
imposed on such revenues; (2) religion or religious rights and usages 
of any class of Her Majesty's subjects in India; (3) discipline or the 
maintenance of any part of Her Majesty's military or naval forces; 
(4) the relations of the government with foreign princes or states. 1 
No law was to be valid until it had received the assent of the governor- 
general or Her Majesty's assent through the secretary of state for 
India in council. 

The signature of the governor-general, or in his absence that of the 
temporary president, was necessary for the validity of any act. He 
was also given the power of making a temporary ordinance, not to remain 
in force for more than six months. The reasons for this veto power as 
given by Sir Charles Wood were that: 

The natives do not distinguish very clearly between the acts of the govern- 
ment itself and the acts of those who apparently constitute it, namely the 
members of the Legislative Council; and in one of Lord Canning's dispatches 
he points out the mischiefs which have on that account arisen from publicity. 
He says that, so far as the English settlers are concerned, publicity is advan- 
tageous; but that if publicity is to continue, care must be taken to prevent 
the natives confounding the measures which are adopted with injudicious 
speeches which may be made in the Legislative Council. I feel it, therefore, 
necessary to strengthen the hand of the government so as to enable them not 
only by veto to prevent the passing of a law, but to prevent the introduction 
of any bill which they think calculated to excite the minds of the native popu- 
lation; repeating the caution which I have before given, I say it behooves us 
to be cautious and careful in our legislation. 2 

On the positive side and subject to these checks, the Council was 
given very extensive legislative powers. It was empowered to enact: 

laws and regulations for repealing, amending, or altering any laws or regulations 
now in force or hereafter to be in force in Indian territories now under the 
dominion of Her Majesty and make laws and regulations for all persons, 

1 Panchanandas Mukherji, Indian Constitutional Documents, 1773-1915, pp. 162 
et seq.; also Law Journal, XXXIX (1861-62), 97. 

2 Parliamentary Debates, 3d Ser., Vol. CLXIII (May-June, 1861), col. 642. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1861 39 

whether British or natives, foreigners or others, and for all courts of justice 
whatever, and for all places and things within the said territories and for all 
servants of the government of India within the dominions of princes and 
states in alliance with Her Majesty; and the laws and regulations so to be 
made by the governor-general in council shall control and supersede any laws 
and regulations in any wise repugnant thereto which shall have been made 
prior thereto by governors of the presidencies of Fort St. George and Bombay 
respectively in council, or the governor or lieutenant governor in council of any 
presidency or other territory for which a council may be appointed, with power 
to make laws and regulations under and by virtue of this Act; provided always 
that the said governor-general in council shall not have the power of making 
any laws or regulations which shall repeal or in any way affect any of the 
provisions of this Act, or certain other acts mentioned by number and name, 
or which may affect the authority of Parliament or the constitution and rights 
of the East India Company, or any part of the unwritten laws or constitution 
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, whereon may depend 
in any degree the allegiance of any person to the Crown of the United King- 
dom, or the sovereignty or dominion of the Crown over any part of the said 
territories. 1 

The regulations 2 in force in the non-regulation provinces were 
declared valid, but by implication it was provided that there should 
be no legislation thereafter in India except as provided for by its statutes. 
The provincial legislative councils were revived in Madras and Bombay 
along lines similar to those of the Imperial Legislative Council. 3 The 
additional 4 members to be summoned for legislative purposes were to 
number from four to eight. Not less than half of them were to be 
non-officials. Their terms were to be two years. The councils were 
subject to the regulations of their respective governors in the matter 
of procedure, just as the Imperial Legislative Council was subject to 
the governor-general. 

Without the previous consent of the governor it was not lawful to 
introduce any measure affecting the public revenues of the presidencies. 

1 Law Journal, XXXIX (1861-62), 97; also P. Mukherji, op. cit., p. 156. 

2 Sir Henry Maine, Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General 
of India, VI (1867), 20. 

3 In 1862 the governor of Bengal was given a legislative council largely as a result 
of the Orissa famine and the maladministration of Sir Cecil Beadon and his Board 
of Revenue. It consisted of four officials and four non-officials. M. E. Grant Duff, 
Life of Sir Henry Maine, pp. 372-73; also Montgomery Martin, The Progress and 
Present State of British India, p. 178. 

4 Law Journal, XXXIX (1861-62), 99; also P. Mukherji, op. cit., pp. 159 et seq. 
Sec. 29 et seq. of Indian Councils Act of 1861. 



40 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The assent of the governor-general to all their laws was necessary for 
their validity. These provincial councils were to have power to make, 
repeal, or amend all laws provided they did not affect the acts of Parlia- 
ment in force in their presidency. Except with the sanction of the 
governor-general they were also not to take into consideration the 
following classes of laws, or regulations: (i) affecting the public debt 
of India or the customs duties, or any other tax or duty now in force 
and imposed by authority of the government of India for general pur- 
poses of such government; (2) regulating any of the current coin or 
issues of any bills, notes, or other paper currency; (3) regulating the 
conveyance of letters by the post-office or messages by the electric 
telegraph within the presidency; (4) altering in any way the penal 
code of India, as established by act of the governor-general in council 
(No. 42 of i860); (5) affecting religion or the religious rites and usages 
of any class of Her Majesty's subjects in India; (6) affecting the disci- 
pline or the maintenance of any part of Her Majesty's military or naval 
forces; (7) affecting the relations of the government with foreign princes 
or states. 1 The governor-general was also given power to extend these 
provincial legislative councils to Bengal and "other parts of India." 

Lord Canning himself was responsible for the re-establishment of 
the provincial legislative councils in Madras and Bombay, where they 
had been in abeyance since 1853. "He strongly felt 2 that although 
great benefits had resulted from the introduction of members into his 
Council who possessed a knowledge of localities — the interests of which 
differ widely in different parts of the country — the changes had not 
been sufficient, in the first place, to overcome the feeling which the other 
presidencies entertained against being overridden, as they called it, by 
the Bengal Council, or, on the other hand, to overcome the advantages 
of having a body legislating for these presidencies without acquaintance 
with local wants and necessities." 

Moreover, Sir Charles Wood said in discussing the question: 
It is obviously necessary that these bodies should not be empowered to 
legislate on subjects which I may call of Indian rather than of local importance. 
The Indian debt, the customs of the country, the army of India, and other 
matters, into the details of which it is not necessary that I should enter, belong 
to a class of subjects which the local legislatures will be prohibited from entering 
upon without the sanction of the governor-general. 3 

1 Law Journal, XXXIX (1861-62), 99; also P. Mukherji, op. tit., p. 162, 
Sec. 43. 

2 Parliamentary Debates, 3d Ser., Vol. CLXIII (May-June, 1861), cols. 643-44. 

3 Ibid., col. 644. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1861 41 

Sir Henry Maine in a minute regarding a proposal to abolish the 
Bengal Legislative Council in 1868 presented the following which is the 
best statement of the reasons back of the re-creation of the provincial 
legislative councils: 

The absolute denial of legislative power to the executive government as it 
affects the wilder and less civilized portions of India is most inconvenient and I 
venture to think most dangerous; for it comes to this, that the executive 
government can do no act unless there is a known rule to back it. This 
might be all very well if India was — -what China was once supposed to be — a 
country in which there was a rule for every possible contingency. But the 
government of the country is an experiment conducted under perpetually 
changing conditions; those who know most of the people in the outlying 
provinces probably know but little of them; mistakes are constantly dis- 
covered which ought at once to be corrected; peculiarities of character and 
feeling unknown before have suddenly to be allowed for; and new circumstances 
arise to which measures must be molded. As matters stand at present the 
government can do nothing without coming to Calcutta for a formal law, the 
reasons for which it is often not easy and occasionally not safe to assign. 
Moreover the law in question has to be asked from a Council which is not 
really responsible for the peace and good government of the territories to be 
legislated for. No doubt in practice the legislature shows great good sense 
by accepting these laws from the local functionaries without questioning them. 
Still it is just possible that a law imperatively required for the safety of the 
Trans-Indus Frontier, or the peace of the wild country in the Central Provinces 
might be refused; and if so what responsibility could be fixed on the members 
of the civil service from Madras, Bombay, and Bengal proper or on the gentle- 
men belonging to the Calcutta mercantile community who sit in the Council ? 
Yet public opinion in England exacts from the executive government of India 
the responsibilities of a despotism — -even over the more settled provinces to a 
much greater extent than is commonly believed, and over the wilder provinces 
absolutely. 

Nor must it be left out of account that the public debates in the council 
which in my judgment have an excellent effect [so far as they go] on the civilized 
and settled provinces might do us great injury in the rest of India to which they 
are sure to penetrate, if they do penetrate, in a distorted and falsified shape. 1 

By far the most profoundly significant provision of the whole act 
was contained in the phrase "as seemed expedient," used to describe 
the additional members to compose the Legislative Council. Inten- 
tionally these words were used to permit the addition of native Indians 
to the Council. If it be possible to fix any specific date for the inaugura- 
tion of self-government in India it would be this. Slight as it was, it 

1 Grant Duff, op. tit., pp. 363-64. 



42 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

was the first break in the rigid exclusiveness of the British control of 
the direction of the policy of the government of British India. Sub- 
ordinate and even occasionally officials of higher rank had been natives, 1 
but never before had they been intrusted with more than the functions 
of carrying out the decisions of English superiors. Now, for the first 
time, Indians were to be granted a voice in the determination of policy, 
small though it was. 

The concession, however, seems to have been made purely for the 
interests of government efficiency and with no idea of anything in the 
nature of self-government. A minute of Sir Bartle Frere, written in 
i860, put the reasons in these words: 

The addition of the native element has, I think, become necessary owing 
to our diminished opportunities of learning through indirect channels what 
the natives think of our measures, and how the native community will be 
affected by them. It is useless to speculate on the many causes which have con- 
spired to deprive us of the advantages which our predecessors enjoyed in this 
respect. Of the fact there can be no doubt and no one will, I think, object 
to the only obvious means of regaining in part the advantages which we have 
lost unless he is prepared for the perilous experiment of continuing to legislate 
for millions of people, with few means of knowing, except by rebellion, whether 
the laws suit them or not. 2 

Sir Charles Wood, in his speech on the act, gave some of the more 
immediate incentives when he said: 

I regret to say that the recent mutiny has aggravated these difficulties. 
The unlimited confidence which a few years ago was felt by the European 
population in the natives of India has given way to feelings of distrust. 
Formerly there was, at all events, no feeling of antagonism between the 
higher portion of official persons and the great mass of the population. The 
latter looked up to the government as to a protector, and if any feeling of 
antagonism existed, it existed only between them and those members of the 
service or the English settlers who were brought into antagonistic contact with 
them. When I heard some time ago that the feeling of antagonism was extend- 
ing itself lower among the natives and higher among the officers, I deeply 
regretted it as the most alarming symptom of altered circumstances which 
must obviously tend to increase the dangers of our position. I do not wish 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 3d Ser., Vol. CLXI (Feb.-March, 1861), col. 475. Both 
in Oudh and in the Punjab, Lord Canning had given to the native chiefs large 
power, both fiscal and magisterial, which they had administered, not only with great 
advantage, but also with a degree of impartiality which might hardly have been 
expected. 

2 "Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, XVIII, 51. East India, 1918. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1861 43 

to dwell on this matter, but it would be folly to shut our eyes to the increas- 
ing difficulties of our position in India, and it is an additional reason why we 
should make the earliest endeavor to put all our institutions on the soundest 
possible foundations. It is notoriously difficult for any European to make 
himself intimately acquainted with either the feelings or opinions of the native 

population x 

I propose that when the governor-general's Council meets for the purpose 
of making laws and regulations, the governor-general should summon, in 
addition to the ordinary members of the Council, not less than six nor more 
than twelve additional members, of whom one-half at least shall not hold 
office under government. These additional members may be either Europeans, 
persons of European extraction, or natives. Lord Canning strongly recom- 
mends that the Council should hold its meetings in different parts of India, 
for the purpose of obtaining at times the assistance of those native chiefs and 
noblemen whose attendance at Calcutta would be impossible or irksome to 
themselves. I do not propose that the judges ex officio shall have seats in the 
legislature; but I do not preclude the governor-general from summoning one 
of their number if he chooses. They were useful members of a body meeting 
as a committee for the purpose of discussing and framing laws, but I think it is 
inexpedient and incompatible with their functions that they should belong to a 
body partaking in any degree of a popular character. I propose that the 
persons nominated should attend all meetings held within a year. If you 
compel their attendance for a longer period you render it very unlikely that 
any natives except those resident upon the spot will attend the meetings of 
the Council. This also is recommended by Lord Canning. Hon. gentlemen 
will have noticed the great success which has attended the association with us 
of the Talookdars of Oudh and the Sirdars in the Punjab in the duties of admin- 
istering the revenue, and Lord Canning has borne testimony to the admirable 
manner in which they have performed their duties. I believe greater advan- 
tages will result from admitting native chiefs to co-operate with us for legisla- 
tive purposes, but they will no longer feel, as they have hitherto done, that 
they are excluded from the management of affairs in their own country, and 
nothing I am persuaded will tend more to conciliate to our rule the minds of 
natives of high rank. 2 

On the actual working of the provision for the admission of natives, 
Sir Henry Maine wrote the following in 1868: 

Nobody who has watched the changes which have occurred during the 
last five or six years in the composition of the Legislative Council can fail to 
have been struck by the steady deterioration, in point both of social rank and 
of mental calibre, of that native element from which so much was at first 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 3d Ser., Vol. CLXIII (May- June, 1861), cols. 634-35. 

2 Ibid., cols. 642-43. 



44 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

expected and to which so much importance is still attached at home. When 
the existing legislature was first established it included a sovereign prince 
[Maharaja of Patiala] the first statesman of the native territories [Raja Dinkar 
Rao] and a wealthy gentleman of an historical family of much influence with 
his countrymen [Raja Deo Narayan Singh] and of singular sagacity. We have 
now two Bengali gentlemen of whom one was for many years of his life a govern- 
ment servant and a zamindar from the Northwest — -all three very respectable 
but none of any extraordinary weight. The result of my experience during 
these five or six years is that we cannot get the men we want and that when 
we get them we cannot keep them or have the greatest difficulty in keeping 
them. 

His Excellency the Viceroy has the nominations to the Council entirely in 
his hands and it is to him that application for his sanction to the departure of 
native members is addressed. He is aware how many times and by whom 
the seats in the Council have been declined and whether or not the native 
members exhibit anxiety to get away. I shall be surprised if he has not 
observed that there is the utmost reluctance to come and the utmost hurry 
to depart and if he does not attribute both to the fear and detestation with 
which the climate of Calcutta is regarded by all the natives of India not born 
in Bengal or indeed in the vicinity of Calcutta itself. We have seen a semi- 
sovereign chief reduced by these feelings to such a pass that after two or three 
days' stay he slipped away in the night leaving a medical certificate behind him, 
and I state the impression repeatedly made on myself when I say that the dis- 
comfort of those native members who do remain is sometimes quite pitiable. 1 

To summarize the main features of the Indian Councils Act of 
1 86 1, it restored to the governments of Madras and Bombay the powers 
of legislation which the Charter Act of 1833 had withdrawn, but with 
the important distinction that thenceforth the previous sanction of the 
governor-general was made requisite for their legislation in certain 
cases, and that all their acts required the subsequent approval of the 
governor-general in addition to that of their governor. 2 To this extent 
the governor-general was given direct and personal control over the 
exercise of all legislative authority in India. 

The legislative councils were restored to Madras and Bombay by 
expanding the executive councils in the same fashion as the governor- 
general's. The governor-general was also directed to establish a similar 
legislative council in Bengal, which was done in 1862, and empowered 
to do so for the Northwestern Provinces and the Punjab. This was 
done in 1886 and 1897 respectively. For purposes of legislation the 

1 Grant Duff, op. cit., pp. 370-71. 

2 " Constitutional Reforms, " Parliamentary Papers, pp. 53-54. East India, 1918. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1861 45 

governor-general's Council was reinforced by additional members, not 
less than six nor more than twelve in number, nominated for two years, 
of whom not less than half were to be non-officials. 

The legislative power of the governor-general in council was extended 
over all persons, whether British or Indian, foreigners or others, within 
the Indian territories under the dominion of Her Majesty, over all 
courts of justice, over all places and things within the said territories, 
over all British subjects within the dominion of princes and states in 
alliance with Her Majesty. The act also gave legal force to all the 
miscellaneous rules and orders which had been issued in the newly 
acquired territorities of the Company, known as the non-regulation 
provinces, either by extending or adapting to them the regulations which 
had been made for the older provinces, or frankly by the executive 
authority of the governor-general in council. 1 The governor-general 
was given power to make in time. of emergency temporary ordinances 
which, however, were not to remain in force more than six months. 

There was no attempt. at demarcating the jurisdictions of the central 
and local legislatures, except that in certain matters the governor- 
general's sanction had to be obtained. With this exception the Imperial 
Council could legislate for the whole of India and the provincial council 
for the whole province. 

The precocity of the existing Legislative Council was rebuked. It 
had modeled its procedure upon that of Parliament and shown what 
was considered an inconvenient amount of independence by asking 
questions about, and discussing the propriety of, the methods of the 
executive government. The functions of the new council were strictly 
limited to legislation. They were expressly forbidden to transact any 
business except the consideration and enactment of legislative measures, 
or to entertain any motion except a motion for leave to introduce a 
bill or having reference to a bill actually introduced. And most important 
ant of all, natives were for the first time admitted to membership in 
the Imperial Legislative Council. 

Some features of these legislative councils established in 1861 should 
be kept especially in mind. The legislative councils then established 
were merely committees for the purpose of making laws — committees by 
means of which the executive government obtained advice and assistance 
in their legislation, and the public derived the advantage of full publicity, 
being assured at every stage of the law-making process. Although 

1 In 1870 the power of legislating for disturbed or backward tracts by regulations 
made in Executive Council was restored to the governor-general. 



46 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

the government enacted the laws through its Council, private legislation 
being unknown, yet the public had a right to make itself heard and the 
executive was bound to defend its legislation. And when the laws were 
once made, the executive was as much bound by them as the public, 
and the duty of enforcing them belonged to the courts of justice. In 
later years there was a growing deference to the opinions of important 
classes, even when they conflicted with the conclusions of the govern- 
ment, and such conclusions were often modified to meet the wishes of 
the non-official members. Still it would not be wrong to describe the laws 
made in the legislative councils as in reality the orders of the government; 
but the laws were made in a manner which insured publicity and dis- 
cussion, were enforced by the courts and not by the executive, could 
not be changed but by the same deliberate and public processes as that 
by which they were made, and could be enforced against the executive 
in favor of individuals when occasion required. 

The councils were not deliberative bodies with respect to any sub- 
ject but that of the immediate legislation before them. They could 
not inquire into grievances, call for information, or examine the conduct 
of the executive. The acts of the administration could not be impugned, 
nor could they be properly defended in such assemblies except with 
reference to the particular measure under discussion. 

As to the general working of the act, Lord Curzon said in 1892: 

This system has undoubtedly worked well. It has justified itself and the 
anticipations of its promoters. Operating to a very large extent through the 
agency of special committees composed of experienced persons, it has proved to 
be an efficient instrument for the evolution of laws. The publicity which has 
attended every stage of its proceedings has had a good effect. A number of 
native gentlemen of intelligence, capacity, and public spirit have been per- 
suaded to come forward and lend their services to the functions of government, 
and undoubtedly the standard of merit in these legislative councils has stood 
high. Indeed, I would venture to say that few better legislative machines, 
with regard to their efficacy for the particular object for which they were con- 
structed, are everywhere in existence, nor can better legislation produced by 
such bodies be found in any other country. 1 

Viewed from the perspective of the whole period of British dominion 
in India, the Indian Councils Act of 1861 closed a chapter. 2 It completed 
the construction and consolidation of the mechanical framework of the 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. III. (1892), col. 55. 

2 "Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, p. 55. East India, 1018. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1861 47 

government of India and furnished a foundation for a generation of 
English administrators to build on. In the period of which it marked 
the close, the three separate provinces had come into a common system 
and the intervening territory brought directly or indirectly under 
British rule. The legislative authority of the governor-general in 
Council had been asserted over all the provinces and extended to all their 
inhabitants. The principle of recognizing local needs and welcoming 
local knowledge had been admitted to the extent of creating two local 
councils, into which a few non-officials and even Indian members had 
been admitted for the purpose of advice. The authority and actual 
control, however, was as yet jealously retained in the hands of the 
officials. 



CHAPTER IV 

MUNICIPALITIES, 1858-68 

The inactivity of Parliament after 1861 
Development in India of municipal government 
The law of 1850 
Provisions 

Extent of application and working 
Municipal developments, 1860-68 
The new laws 
Reasons 

Cumbersomeness of the act of 1850 
The Sanitary report of 1863 
The resolution of Lord Lawrence, September 14, 1864 
The municipal policy of the government — -to devise a cheap and efficient 

police and sanitation system 
The acts 

The Bengal Village Police Act of 1856 

The Bengal Municipalities Act of 1864 

The Madras Municipal Act of 1865 

The Bombay amendments to act of .1850, in 1861, 1862, and 1865 

Their working in Karachi 
The Punjab acts 

The Lucknow Municipal Act of 1864 

The beginning of municipal government elsewhere in the Punjab 

The Punjab Act of 1867 — wide powers granted to the lieutenant 

governor 
Extension of the act to the Central Provinces and Oudh 
The Northwestern Provinces Act of 1868 
Purpose and plan 

Model — the Punjab act somewhat elaborated 
The Bengal Act of 1868 
Types of municipal acts 

1. Minute and particular provisions as in Bengal 

2. Moderate detail as in Northwestern Provinces 

3. Vague and general — the Punjab 

The features of the laws of the 1860's — sanitation and police 

Obstacles to the acts encountered — lack of capable men, apathy of public 

opinion 
Government's belief in necessity for official guidance 
The working of the acts 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1858-68 49 

After the law of 1861 had passed on to the statute books, Parlia- 
ment, save for some minor unimportant measures, 1 left the field of Indian 
political development alone for thirty-one years until in 1892 another 
Indian Councils Act marked a new step. In the meantime, however, 
the development of self-government was by no means at a standstill. 
The field of its development merely shifted from the imperial and provin- 
cial, where the first concession had been made toward admitting natives 
to even a slight share in the determination of the affairs of India, to the 
lesser municipalities first, and later to the rural areas. 

This tremendously important development, however, was effected 
in India itself by the Legislative Council of the governor-general and 
the presidencies, supplemented by movements among the Indian people. 
In these, Parliament and the English people were concerned primarily 
only as spectators, although of course no change was made without the 
approval of the secretary of state. 

By 1858 2 some steps had already been taken in the direction of 
introducing municipal government in the lesser towns. In 1850 an act 
had been passed which was still in force in the Northwestern Provinces, 
the Punjab, and Bombay, where the similarity of the taxes authorized 
by it to the old Maratha levies made it peculiarly suitable. 

This act 3 provided that "if it shall appear to the Governor or Lieu- 
tenant Governor of any presidency" that the inhabitants of a town were 
desirous of making better provision for their streets and sanitation, he 
might put the act in force, creating a municipal committee consisting of 
the magistrates and such number of the inhabitants as should seem 
necessary to him. The members of these committees were empowered 

1 Among these measures were: (a) The Government of India Act of 1865, which 
denned the legislative powers of the governor-general in council, and the territorial 
boundaries of the presidencies. P. Mukherji, Indian Constitutional Documents, 
1773-1915, pp. 132 et seq. (b) The Government of India Act of 1869 which made all 
the members of the India Council appointees of the secretary of state for India. 
Law Reports of England, 1868-71. (c) The India Councils Act of 187 1, which 
limited the legislative power of the governor-general in council in the matter of 
Europeans, forbidding granting magistrates jurisdiction over them which they did 
not have over natives. Law Reports of England, 1868-71. (d) The Indian Councils 
Act of 1874 was passed to authorize an additional public works member for the execu- 
tive council of the governor-general. Public General Statutes of England, 1874, 
PP- 37~38; Vict., chap. 91. (e) The Council of India Act of 1876 which authorized 
appointees to the Council of India, possessed of special knowledge. P. Mukherji, 
Indian Constitutional Documents, 1773-1915, pp. 132 et seq. 

2 W. W. Hunter, Imperial Gazetteer of India, IV, 286. 

3 Acts of the Governor-General of India in Council, 1850, Act XXVI (June 21,1850). 



50 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

to appoint the necessary servants, to apportion in taxes, either house 
assessments or town duties, to prohibit nuisances, and to make necessary 
contracts. 

Sir William Mansfield, commander-in-chief, speaking on the North- 
western Provinces Municipalities Bill in 1868, and referring to the 
working of the act of 1850 said: 

Lieutenant governors, commissioners, and magistrates in this country 
were generally animated by the most ardent zeal, but it did sometimes happen 
that zeal outran discretion. When there was total irresponsibility .... 
they had reason to put some check on the actions of the local officials. They 
were able to quote various instances in which the application of local funds in 
certain places had been made with a view to ornament and beautify localities, 
sometimes much more to the convenience of European ladies and gentlemen 

than of the people who paid the taxes They had beautiful parks in 

one place, and magnificent gardens in another, all made out of local funds. 
.... Very recently .... he was stopping for a day in a town of some ten 
thousand inhabitants, in which there was a beautiful new market place, a 
handsome dispensary, a new square; a cross erected at the meeting of certain 
roads .... [all done] from local funds. 1 

Lord Lawrence himself admitted this saying, "In many places where 
undeniable improvements had been effected, they had been made more for 
the advantage of Europeans than natives, whereas the greater portion 
of the funds had been paid by natives," 2 but cited the case of Lahore 
where the glacis of the town had been turned into gardens very much 
to the health of the town and numerous members of the native com- 
munity had expressed themselves well pleased with the results. 

In the Punjab the criticism was that it was found that the pro- 
cedure of the introduction of the act was too tedious. Mr. Brandreth, 3 
in discussing the law in 1866, did not regard it necessary to ask the 
consent of the townspeople for introduction of municipal government, 
although he did for methods of taxation. Moreover, the act made no 
provision for the police, which the subsequent Act V of 1861 had ordained 
should be appointed by the lieutenant governor. 

The act of 1850 had been introduced, however, into four or five 
places in the Punjab. In these the committees were composed either 
entirely or in part of Europeans. They enjoyed, consequently, a more 
independent position than would have otherwise been the case. 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, VII 
(1868), 21. 

2 Ibid., pp. 38-39. 3 ibid., V (1866), 236. 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1858-68 51 

In general the act of 1850 was cumbersome in operation because of 
its voluntary provisions, and it would before long have been either 
amended or repealed. The immediate impulse, however, came from 
the report of the Royal Army Sanitary Commission, published in 1863. 
The official interest aroused by it in sanitary matters manifested itself 
extensively in the municipal field. 

On the fourteenth of September, 1864, Lord Lawrence's government 
(see Gazette of India Extraordinary) issued a resolution in which it is said : 

The people of this country are perfectly capable of administering their 
own local affairs. The municipal feeling is deeply rooted in them Hold- 
ing the position we do in India, every view of duty and policy should induce 
us to leave as much as possible of the business of the country to be done by the 
people, by means of funds raised by themselves, and to confine ourselves to 
doing those things which must be done by the government; and to influencing 
and directing in a general way all the movements of the social machine. 1 

Acting on this principle the government of India embarked on a 
policy which Sir John Lawrence summarized when, several years later 
in the course of the debate on the Punjab Municipal Act of 1868, he said : 

For several years the government had been urging the adoption of sanitary 
improvements and arrangements, the establishment of hospitals, the construc- 
tion of sarais and all those numerous matters which result in such great improve- 
ments to the country and benefit to the inhabitants, particularly the poor. 
To enable such improvements to be carried out they must give the commission- 
ers some power to raise funds for the purpose. 2 

This policy manifested itself in a series of laws. The first of these 
was the Bengal Municipal Act of 1864. 3 It 4 provided 5 a body of seven 

1 J. Goldsmid, "Questions of the Day in India," Nineteenth Century Review, 
XIII (1883), 741- 

2 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, VII (1868), 
39-4o. 

3 For Bengal another act had been passed in 1856 (No. XX). It was intended to 
provide for the appointment and maintenance of police chaukidars in "Cities, towns, 
stations, suburbs, and bazars." Although primarily a police measure, and intended 
as nothing more, it was extended to include sweepers in some places. Its chief impor- 
tance, however, was as part of the foundations of the later laws. It provided for 
tax levies by punchayets of from three to five members appointed by the magistrate, 
Ibid., XXIII, 534. 

4 Acts of the Legislative Council of the Leiutenant Governor of Bengal, 1864, Act 
III, pp. 215 et seq. 

5 The municipal acts for Bengal, Madras, and Bombay were enacted by the 
provincial legislative councils, and unfortunately their debates have not been avail- 
able. Their provisions were more elaborate as a rule, but the underlying principles 
were the same as for the acts passed by the Imperial Legislative Council. 



52 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

or more municipal commissioners, appointed by the lieutenant governor 
of Bengal supplemented by ex officio members, the commissioner of 
the division, the magistrate of the district, and the executive engineer. 
The magistrate was to be ex officio chairman. This body was to impose the 
usual land taxes and town duties. It was applied in twenty-five towns. 1 

Madras followed Bengal and in 1865 passed a municipal act. 2 It 
was a new departure for that province, but in general followed the 
Bengal law, although on more elaborate lines. In Madras the body of 
commissioners was to number five or more instead of seven or more as 
in Bengal, but they were to be appointed in the same fashion. The 
ex officio members were to be the magistrate of the district and the 
public-works officer. The most important difference was in the greater 
elaborateness with which the Madras measure covered the functions 
and taxes authorized, but the difference was in amount of detail, not 
in principle. 

Bombay was content with simple amendments of the act of 1850. 
These were made in 1861, 3 i862, 3 andin 1865. The latter was the Bombay 
expression of the municipal government movement which had already 
manifested itself in Bengal and was even then materializing in Madras. 
Of the workings of these laws in Karachi, Mr. Stewart said in 1868 that 

he had been intimately connected for several years with the municipal com- 
missioners of one of the largest towns in the Bombay presidency, and one in 
which municipal institutions had succeeded better perhaps than in most, 
Karachi. Twelve years ago the principle of election was applied to Karachi 
and rules were laid down under which each important guild or fraternity of the 
inhabitants obtained the right of electing its representatives. The result was 
that in Karachi there was a maximum of self-government and a minimum of 
official interference. 4 

^Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XII (1873), 
229. 

2 Acts of the Legislative Council of the Governor of Madras, 1865, Act X, pp. 5 et seq. 

3 W. W. Hunter, op. tit., VIII, 365. The most important of these amendments 
was that of 1862. Previously the functions of the municipalities had been restricted 
to the making and repair of public streets, tanks, drains, etc., and the prevention of 
nuisances. After the act of 1862 it was lawful for them to spend money on dispensaries, 
hospitals, schools, and road-watering. By the same act the government received power 
to coerce recalcitrant municipalities into carrying out measures urgently needed. 
Up to 1870 the act of 1850 itself had only been adopted in 96 towns in Bombay, so 
averse were the inhabitants of the urban areas to submitting to municipal taxation 
and control. 

4 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, VII 
(1868), 125. 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1858-68 53 

By 1872 there were two hundred and one municipalities in the Bombay 
presidency. 1 

The Imperial Legislative Council was slower in getting under way 
than the presidency bodies. In 1864 a measure to legalize the existing 
municipality of Lucknow 2 was made necessary by the act of 1862, which 
was interpreted as restricting the entire legislative function to the 
Legislative Council, and inhibiting further legislation by regulation of 
the governor-general in council. A formal enactment was therefore 
imperative. 3 The Lucknow municipal committee was to be composed 
of the commissioner of Lucknow, the inspector-general of the police 
in Oudh, the civil surgeon of Lucknow, and the engineer of Lucknow. 
The non-official members were to be elected under such rules as to electo- 
rate and election as the chief commissioner of Oudh might prescribe. 

This act and that of 1850 furnished the greater part of the founda- 
tion for the measure which the Imperial Legislative Council framed for 
the Punjab in 1867. In the Punjab, however, there had been a novel 
effect produced by the report of 1863. 4 In the early years subsequent 
to its annexation the Punjab sanitation was cared for by the district 
officers with good results as far as their immediate locality was concerned 
but decreasing by the square of the distance of their remoteness. 

Following the report, Sir Robert Montgomery, 5 then lieutenant 
governor of the Punjab, determined on introducing municipal com- 
mittees in almost all of the principal "inhabited places" in the Punjab. 
His wish was to give thereby to the people a more direct interest in 
matters that so nearly concerned them. 

He directed that these committees should be appointed by the 
people themselves. 6 To a very great degree he was actually successful 
in this. "As far as the persons composing the committees were 
concerned they were in fact elective bodies. They were chosen by 
members of the different trades or in similar ways from among the 
townspeople themselves." 

The committees were generally composed of natives. In a. great 
many cases the officers of the government were not even members of 

z Ibid., XI, 104. 2 Ibid., II, 49. 

'This law is published in full in Legislative Acts of the Governor-General of India 
in Council, IV, 461 et seq., by W. Theobald. It was No. XVIII of 1864, passed 
March 24, 1864. 

4 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, V 
(1866), 234. 

s Ibid., VI (1867), in. 6 Ibid., V (1866), 234. 



54 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

the committees and practically their entire business was carried on by- 
natives. It was the consensus of opinion at the time that much good 
work was done by the committees, along the lines of sanitation, in dig- 
ging wells and tanks, establishing efficient conservancy systems, stopping 
river encroachments, and draining swamps. 

The whole proceeding, 1 however, was irregular and under the Indian 
Councils Act of 1861 without legal authority. The townspeople paid 
the taxes "in consequence of the good understanding subsisting between 
them and their committees," and even "the few defaulters who had 
been brought into court, though it was probably through ignorance, 
had never been heard of pleading that the taxes were illegal." 

It was impossible that this patriarchal state of affairs could last, 
and the lieutenant governor applied for legislation on the subject in 
order both to legalize the new municipalities and to unite them with the 
few municipalities existing under the Towns Act (No. XXVI) of 1850 
and the Lucknow Municipal Act of 1864, into a more uniform system 
of municipal government. 

The law 2 as it finally issued from the Legislative Council at Calcutta, 
gives the impression of anything but liberality, though doubtless as 
advanced as the actual conditions warranted. It was, speaking broadly, 
a carte blanche to the lieutenant governor to establish whatever form 
of municipal government he chose, where he chose. The lieutenant 
governor was authorized in any town to appoint either ex officio or 
otherwise, or direct the appointment by election of any number of 
persons, not less than five to be members of the municipal committee. 
He might add to reduce the number or remove members at will and make 
such rules for the elections as he saw fit. All the tax measures required 
his previous consent. The first call on the municipal funds was to be 
the police. After its requirements were met money might be expended 
for conservancy, sanitation, and general improvement of the town. 
The committee also, subject to the approval and alteration of the lieu- 
tenant governor, might enact the necessary by-laws. 

Even at that early time there were several, especially Mr. Riddell, 
who objected to allowing the lieutenant governor so much discretion, 
but it was felt that such extensive control was necessary to have in 
reserve to cover cases where matters went wrong. To meet this objec- 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, V 
(1866), 235. 

2 Published in full in Legislative Acts of the Governor-General in Council, 
W. Theobald, V, 409, No. XV of 1867 (March 11, 1867). 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1858-68 55 

tion and that to the octroi, however, the operation of the act was limited 
to five years. 

This Punjab Municipality Act of 1867 1 worked rather well. By 
1871-72 there were three hundred and twenty-four towns and places in 
the province in which municipal income was raised. Of these two had 
been constituted under the old municipal act of 1850, and one hundred 
and twenty-seven were constituted under the act of 1867. One hundred 
and ninty-five were minor towns in which the municipal income was 
raised under executive orders in accordance with previous custom. 

The chief commissioners of both Oudh and the Central Provinces 
had applied for the enactment of similar measures. The chief commis- 
sioner of the Central Provinces 2 did not at the time approve of the act, 
but a clause was inserted giving the governor-general in council power 
to extend its operation to both provinces. This was subsequently done. 
In the Central Provinces 3 over twelve municipalities were created under 
it, and in Oudh it was applied to a "Considerable number of places." 

Under Sir George Campbell, 4 the chief commissioner, the law was 
most liberally applied in the Central Provinces as the following selec- 
tions from one of bis circulars show. It provided for the trial experi- 
mentally of the system of election. 

It will not be necessary to record the votes of those who do not choose to 
attend and vote but the district officers are requested to use their influence to 
induce the people to take an interest in the matter and to give their votes. 
It should be our object to insure that all classes may be fairly represented and 
especially that the laboring classes who cannot easily make themselves heard 
may have those who will speak for them and take care of their interests. 

It is not to be expected that the interest felt in these elections will be 
great at first, but the chief commissioner believes that if the people find their 
representatives have a real voice in their taxation and municipal management, 
an interest will spring up and substantial self-government may be gradually 
introduced. Wherever the committees have not been duly and properly 
elected under rules previously promulgated, elections will now be held under 
these instructions. Where they have been already so elected, they will of 
course hold office for the term for which they were elected. 5 

The following year another act of the same character as the Punjab 
act was passed by the Imperial Legislative Council for the Northwestern 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor -General of India, XXIII 
(1884), 224. 

2 Ibid., VI (1867), no. '■Ibid., p. 184. 

3 Ibid., XII (1873), 178, 208, 278. s Ibid. 



56 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

Provinces 1 at the request of their lieutenant governor. It was framed 2 
to a great extent on the model of the Punjab measure. The reasons 
advanced for this measure present the municipal situation of the time 
at a little different angle. Mr. Massey in the course of the debate on 
the bill said: 

It was shown that whereas the present municipal law [1850] required an 
application from the people themselves in order to bring it into play, those 
really concerned were indifferent in the matter. Unless, therefore, the govern- 
ment acted proprio motu there would be no early prospect of anything being 
done towards municipal improvement. 3 

Mr. Cockerell said: 

One of the main objects of the introduction of municipal administration 
was to stimulate the interests of the more intelligent portion of the community 
of the towns, etc., to which it was applied in measures which had for their 
object the amelioration of the condition of the people by inviting them to a 
share in the local administration which devised those measures and carried 
them into operation.* 

There were also the same reasons advanced for it as for the Punjab 
Act of 1867. Mr. Brandreth put them thus: 

Now that a regular organized police force with a police superintendent at 
its head has been established in every district, it was surely desirable that the 
police in large towns should be part of that body 

In a matter so obviously necessary as the construction of public works and 
the giving effect to useful sanitary measures in towns, it was surely advisable 
that the local governments should be empowered to so far take the initiative 
as to require the appointment of municipal commissioners for these purposes 
and that it should not be required to go through the somewhat absurd formality 
provided by the existing act, which was not well suited to the circumstances of 
the country of calling upon the mass of the inhabitants of such towns to decide 
whether they would have the act or not.s 

This Northwestern Provinces Municipalities Act was applied in 
some sixty-two towns. 6 One effort was made to require election and 
Mr. Stewart proposed the following amendment to the Northwestern 
Provinces Act while it was under discussion in 1868. 

Section 7. As soon as practicable after their appointment the Council 
shall prepare and submit for the sanction of the lieutenant governor rules for 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, VII 
(1868), 12. 

2 Ibid., p. 14. 3 Ibid., p. 25. t Ibid., p. 31. 5 Ibid., p. 35. 
6 Published in full in the Acts of the Governor-General of India in Council, 1868. 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1858-68 57 

the biennial elections of municipal commissioners in the place of those who 
retire by rotation, and such rules when sanctioned by the lieutenant governor 
shall remain in force until altered or amended by the municipal commissioners 
with the sanction aforesaid. 

These rules shall fix the qualifications required to entitle a person to vote 
for the election of a municipal commissioner and shall provide for the registra- 
tion of such electors and the place and mode of election. 

Every such election shall be completed not less than thirty days before 
the expiration of the period of office of the retiring member, and shall be 
reported by the president or vice-president of the committee to the lieutenant 
governor, and failing such election and report, the lieutenant governor may 
appoint duly qualified persons to be municipal commissioners in the place of 
those retiring in rotation. 1 

His only argument was that the system of election otherwise might 
not be tried at all. He was voted down, Sir Henry Maine contending 
that it was unwise to tie the hands of the lieutenant governor, especially 
as he was opposed to the application of the elective system and, further, 
that the towns in the Northwestern Provinces were not yet by any 
means ready for it. The desirability of electing the committees was 
generally conceded, but it seemed to have been wholly in the interests 
of efficiency and of lightening the burden of administration. 

In the same year a new and more advanced law was passed by the 
Bengal Legislative Council. 2 This law not only provided for town 
committees, but also authorized the magistrate to create ward com- 
mittees. The minimum size for the town committees was fixed at five, 
for the ward bodies at three. The government of Bengal was to pro- 
vide such rules as it saw fit for their selection. This was the last of the 
municipal acts of the 1860's. 

Broadly speaking, the acts of this decade fall into three categories, 
according to the prevailing forms of taxation. 3 In the first category, 
where it stood alone, was the Bengal act, which was a very minute and 
particular system in which the powers of the government as to the 
subjects of taxation were limited. In the second class, which included 
the Northwestern Provinces and Madras, there was a moderate limit 
to the taxation; the subjects of taxation were in a loose way prescribed; 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, VII 
(1868), 123-26. 

2 Acts of the Legislative Council of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, 1868, Act VI, 
pp. 17 et seq. 

3 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XII 
(1873), 218. 



58 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

and certain maxims of taxation were laid down. Among them the 
incidence of taxation was more moderate than in the third division. 
The third group consisted of the Punjab, the Centra] Provinces, Oudh, 
and Bombay, where the municipal laws were altogether of a loose 
character; where there were no limits and no maxims of taxation; 
and where the taxation was left very much to the discretion of the 
executive government. 

In general the municipal acts of the sixties had two purposes in 
view: the provision for the support of an adequate police force and the 
creation of an efficient system of sanitation resting on a developed 
public sentiment. They were primarily administrative measures. 
Those concerned with the passage of the laws were concerned more with 
preventing the octroi, or tax on articles entering towns, becoming a 
trade-fettering transit duty, and similar features, than they were with 
the idea of developing self-government. 

As administrative measures on the whole, the laws were less cumbrous 
than that of 1850, though the latter amended still operated in Bombay. 
The laws varied to a considerable degree in the extent to which they 
detailed the sanitary powers of the municipal commissioners, and listed 
the taxes by means of which the committees were to meet their expenses. 
In the matter of self-government, however, they were very similar as 
far as the general principle was concerned. There was little idea of 
political training in the measures. They were designed to promote sani- 
tation and public security by enlisting the assistance of the natives, and 
to some extent to lighten the financial burden of the imperial govern- 
ment. 1 Consequently, the government was given the power to step in 
and alter as it saw fit, whenever occasion arose. 

In judging the motives which inspired these laws, however, it must 
not be forgotten that there were very serious obstacles to be encountered 
in introducing the laws. During the debate in 1868 on the Northwestern 
Provinces Municipal Act, Sir Henry Maine quoted the lieutenant 
governor of those provinces as saying: 

There are towns in which the system of a popular election would not con- 
duce to good government. Either the number of citizens who by their intelli- 
gence and public spirit are capable of serving is so limited that there is little 
room for selection if a working committee is to be had, or those whose influence 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, VII (1868), 
130. Mr. Minchin went so far as to say in the course of the debate on the North- 
western Provinces Municipal Act of 1868 that the chief object as he took if in 
encouraging municipal action was to relieve to some extent imperial taxation by 
taxes self-imposed. 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1858-68 59 

must be respected would not act with persons chosen indifferently. Especially 
is it necessary on the first introduction of a system to conciliate those who are 
the leaders of society, and to use only the material which by education and 
natural ability is most fitted to perform the duties of the post. It is only to 
the care in attending to this that, in not a few instances, the success of the 
working of the act is due. Very recently when the act was introduced into the 
important town of Benares, the lieutenant governor was anxious that at least 
a portion of the committees should be elected by the citizens and suggested 
this to the committee of the leading residents appointed to draw up the rules, 
but the proposal did not meet with a favorable reception. Those native 
gentlemen who were unquestionably the most public spirited and intelligent in 
that large town thought that it would be unwise to introduce such a system 

until the act had been in operation for some time Had the act rigidly 

prescribed that only by election shall the committee be chosen, it is not rash 
to assert that the result would often have been a failure, not success. 1 

Sir John Lawrence himself took a similar attitude saying: 
The people on the whole were really indifferent to the subject of municipal 
and local improvements; if left to themselves a very great majority of them 
would prefer that there should be filth and insalubrity rather than that they 
should be taxed, but if the initiative were taken in a kindly way by the local 
officers, if the leading native citizens were consulted and improvements were 
carried out by degrees, particularly where the local government took the 
initiative, the natives would gladly follow the lead and accept a system of 
municipal government which if left to themselves they would really oppose. 2 

There were, however, a few expressions of more radical views. 
Mr. Taylor in the course of the debate on the Northwestern Provinces 
Municipal Act in 1868 said: 

He believed that the people of this country were as capable of representative 
government as any other nation in the world. But they were not as yet, as a 
general rule, sufficiently accustomed to the duties and responsibilities it 
imposed, even in municipal affairs administered according to our forms, to be 

able to stand altogether alone He had always maintained that it 

should be the aim of the government to improve and strengthen independent 
municipal action to the utmost of its power, to encourage the people to under- 
take for themselves what they could do far better than the state and by this 
means to develop a spirit of self-reliance and teach them self-government. 
He believed that the town and rural population were easily reconciled to local 
cesses of various descriptions, even when they were innovations upon popular 
ideas and customs, provided these cesses were imposed for definite objects 
connected with their own interests and their own convenience and well-being. 
And speaking from personal experience he could also state with confidence that 

1 Ibid., p. 128. 2 Ibid., p. 39. 



60 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

their acquiescence in any well-devised measure of taxation for purely local and 
municipal objects was usually very readily obtained when they were invited 

and trusted to take an active part in its administration The local 

administration and the district officers in the different provinces were the best 
judges when a spirit of responsibility were sufficiently matured to admit of the 
election of administratives independently of government control. 1 

Speaking generally, in actual operation the acts of the sixties seem 
to have worked as well as could be expected. Baron Northbrook in 
1873 said of them: 

During my recent visit to the Punjab I received from the lieutenant 
governor and other officers assurances that the native members of the municipal 
committees had performed their duties with great zeal and intelligence and 
had been of great assistance to the government. 2 

Speaking still more generally he said : 

I have had some opportunities of ascertaining what the present state of 
representative municipal government is in different parts of India, and I am 
happy to say that I have had satisfactory evidence that in some parts of 
India, at any rate, representative municipal institutions have worked well. 
The realization of the full advantages of these institutions must of course be a 
matter of time and will require the education of more than one generation, but 
in Sindh, the Punjab, and the Central Provinces I was assured that the repre- 
sentative municipal committees have acted with independence and managed 
their own affairs 'well and satisfactorily. I wish, therefore, to say that as far 
as my knowledge enables me to speak, I believe municipal representative 
institutions have already worked well in many parts of India, and I am con- 
vinced that the introduction of representation in the management of local 
affairs will ultimately prove a great security to the government and an advan- 
tage to the people of this country .3 

Mr. Bayley during the debate on the Central Provinces bill said 
the government in every case carefully considered "not only the wishes 
of the people but the policy of establishing each intended municipality 
and that particular constitution which it was intended to give it." 4 

In many cases, 5 however, the election privileges were admittedly a 
sham. 6 In the Punjab a Local Government Order of 1868 said, "Ordinarily 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, VII 
(1868), pp. 132 et seq. 

2 Ibid., XII (1873), 71. « Ibid., pp. 186-87. 

3 Ibid., p. 197. 5 Ibid., VII (1868), 125. 

6 Ibid., p. 131. Mr. Minchin said, "It might be said that the whole attempt 
to make municipalities elective was a sham; if he was not afraid of the charge 
of cynicism, he might allow it and say that it was a beneficial sham." 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1858-68 61 

a system of appointment will be preferred to one by popular election," 
and throughout the circular referred to, which was of great length and 
went into minute details on all points, there was not a word about 
election. H. W. Norman also admitted that the official element was 
very strong in municipal communities, and he believed that the poorer 
classes were often very inadequately represented. 1 The officials and 
richer natives labored under a strong temptation to endeavor to adorn 
the town .... and were well able to bear the taxation " necessary for 
the purpose, but he was quite convinced that the people were in general 
far too poor to be with propriety taxed for such objects. 

*IMd.,XI (1872), 607. 



CHAPTER V 

MUNICIPALITIES, 1868-82 (LORD MAYO AND 
LORD NORTHBROOK) 

Financial decentralization under Lord Mayo 
Economic causes 
Famine 
Deficits 
Lord Mayo's resolution 
Effect of the policy 

Madras Act of 187 1 
Election provisions 
Their working 
In the Punjab 

In the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh 
Continuation of the policy under Lord Northbrook 
The disallowed Bengal Municipal Act of 1873 

The opinions of Sir George Campbell, its author 
The Punjab Municipal Act of 1873 

Its working 
The Northwestern Provinces and Oudh Act of 1873 

Its working 
The Central Provinces Municipal Act of 1873 

Its working 
The Bombay Municipalities Act of 1873 
The Burma Municipalities Acts of 1861 and 1874 
The Bengal Municipalities Act of 1876 
The obstacles encountered by the acts 
Native estimate and opinions of municipal government 
Relative unimportance of the numbers affected by municipal acts 

The disciples of the theory of economic determinism will find much 
of significance in the light of subsequent events in the occurrences of the 
decade 1870-80. In 1866 occurred the terrible Orissa 1 famine coupled 
with the financial crisis of the same year, which nearly ruined the tea 
industry in Bengal and resulted in the widespread collapse of business 
in Bombay. In 1868-69 followed the famine in Bundelkhand and upper 
Hindustan, during the course of which Lord Lawrence laid down the 

1 Sir W. W. Hunter, Imperial Gazetteer of India, II, 516. 

62 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1868-82 63 

principle that the officers of the government would be held personally 
responsible for taking every possible means to avert death by starvation. 
The resulting increase in the financial burden of the government was 
very great, and the deficit became steadily more difficult to out-maneuver. 
Lord Mayo came to the viceroyalty in 1869. He set about reorganiz- 
ing the finances and inaugurated a system of provincial finance whereby 
the provinces were to assume part of the growing burden. In August, 
1869, Lord Mayo wrote to Sir Henry Durand: 

I am determined not to have another deficit, even if it leads to the diminu- 
tion of the army, the reduction of civil establishments, and stoppage of public 
works. The longer I look at the things the more I am convinced that our 
financial position is one of great weakness, and that our national safety abso- 
lutely requires that it should be dealt with at once, and in a summary manner. 1 

Lord Mayo accordingly resorted to two expedients, retrenchment 
and a reform of the financial system. 2 After an exhaustive preliminary 
correspondence with each separate administration he issued a resolution 
on the fourteenth of December, 1870, which may be called the charter 
of the provincial governments of India. By this document, which in 
due time received the approval of the secretary of state, a fixed yearly 
consolidated grant was made to each government to enable it to defray 
the cost of its principal services exclusive of the army, but including 
public works. The grants thus made were final for a period usually of 
five years and were liable to reduction only in case of severe financial 
distress happening to the supreme government. They belonged abso- 
lutely to the respective local governments. No savings from any one 
reverted to the Imperial Treasury. Their distribution was left to the 
discretion of the local governments, without interference on the part of 
the governor-general in council. 3 

1 Sir W. W. Hunter, Lord Mayo, p. 143. 2 Ibid., p. 151. 

3 Ibid., p. 140. How effective these measures were can be seen from the following 
summary of their results: 

The years of deficit (before Lord Mayo's arrival) were 1866-67 — 2 !3°7,7°°; 
1867-68 — 923,720; 1868-69 — 2 ,54 2 >86i; with a total deficit for the three years of 
5,774,281, reduced to sterling. The year of equilibrium (Lord Mayo's first year) was 
1869-70 — -108,779 (surplus in sterling). The years of surplus (after Lord Mayo's 
reforms) were 1870-71 — 1,359,410; 1871-72 — 2,863,836; 1872-73 — 1,616,888; with a 
total surplus for the three years of 5,840,134, reduced to sterling. — Sir W. W. Hunter, 
Lord Mayo, p. 140. 

The decentralization plan of Lord Mayo is exhaustively discussed by Sir John 
Strachey in Finances and Public Works of India, 1869-81 (London, 1882), especially 
chap. ix, pp. 132-55. 



64 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

In the course of the resolution he said in the twenty- third paragraph : 

But beyond all this there is a greater and wider object in view. Local 
interests, supervision, and care are necessary to success in the management 
of funds devoted to education, sanitation, medical charity, and local public 
works. The operation of this resolution in its full meaning and integrity will 
afford opportunities for the development of self-government, for strengthening 
municipal institutions, and for the association of natives and Europeans to a 
greater extent than heretofore in the administration of affairs. 1 

This paragraph, while in thought very similar to that contained in 
the resolution of the government of Lord Lawrence in 1864, in its tone 
is more frank in its declaration of policy. The motive back of both, 
however, was the same — primarily a desire for administrative efficiency 
rather than concession of self-government for its own sake. In the 
one the predominant idea was sanitation and police, in the latter it was 
financial reform, but in both the introduction of the non-official element 
was but a means to an end, and only an incidental feature of the whole 
scheme. The important difference between the programs of Lord 
Lawrence and of Lord Mayo was in their execution. 

The effect of Lord Mayo's transformation in the financial system 
found its chief manifestation in the operation of the laws already in 
existence, but was also attended by the passage of new acts. Among 
these was the Madras Act of 1871. 2 This law authorized the governor 
in council to appoint not less than three property-owners or professional 
men or residents of a town to be its commissioners for a term of three 
years. The collector of the district and the revenue officer of the division 
were to be ex officio members. Not more than one-half the members were 
to be officials. The introduction of the system of election was left in the 
discretion of the governor in council which was authorized to enact such 
rules as it saw fit. The usual taxes on real estate, professions, and 
vehicles for the usual purposes of highway maintenance and education 
were authorized, but the police were to be provided for by the imperial 
government. Until 1878, 3 however, the elective system was not applied, 
but in that year as the result of the agitation over the Madras city act, 

1 P. Mukherji, Indian Constitutional Documents, p. 405; J. Goldsmid, "Questions 
of the Day in India," Nineteenth Century Review, XIII (1883), 741; Evelyn Baring, 
"Recent Events in India," ibid., XIV, 579. 

2 This act is published in full in the Acts of the Governor of Madras in Council, 
1871, Act III. 

3 John Crowdy, "Our Indian Empire," British Almanac and Companion, 
1878, p. 74. 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1868-82 65 

a limited right of electing members was extended as an experiment to 
ten towns. 

In December, 1872, the chief secretary of Madras wrote regarding 
the working of the act of 1871 : 

In the opinion of the government the experiment of establishing munici- 
palities in the mofussil has been more than fairly successful Though 

the bulk of the community would probably gladly forego the benefits they 
have received to escape the taxation, a not inconsiderable portion of the more 
educated classes are fully alive to the necessity of all that has been done. 
.... The unquestionable interest in the work displayed by many of the non- 
official members testifies to their appreciation of the part which has been 

assigned to them in the administration of the Act Several years' 

experience has satisfied the government that the burden so imposed on the 
residents of the municipalities has been less unacceptable to them than if they 
had had no voice in the expenditure of funds. 1 

The effect of the new policy on the administration of the existing 
acts even before the passage of the new acts, was thus described in 1872 
during the debate on the Punjab Municipalities Act by Mr. Robinson. 

The direction of municipal taxation has been enormously stimulated by 
the action enjoined by the late financial policy adopted by the government of 
India; and the increasing burdens thrown upon local governments and prov- 
inces have of course in part been shifted on to municipal bodies with powers 
and instructions in some cases to get all they can out of almost any source 
that can be devised. 2 

In the same year Mr. Dalyell, in discussing the Northwestern 
Provinces and Oudh measure of 1873, said: 

The decentralization scheme of 1870, though no doubt it had proved in 
many respects most beneficial to the general administration of the empire, 
had had the effect of giving a great impetus to local taxation of all descriptions, 
and this had resulted in some cases in considerably increasing the burdens on 
the poorer classes of the people. 3 

Sir Richard Temple 4 denied this, but only on the grounds that but a 
very small part of the population lived in towns. 

The assassination of Lord Mayo on the Andamans in 1872 scarcely 
retarded the measures. Lord Northbrook (1872-76) vigorously pursued 
the same policy of retrenchment and exploitation of all possible sources 
of revenue. 

1 Hindu (weekly), Dec. 19, 1907, p. 23, col. 1. 

2 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XI 
(1872), 109. 

3 Ibid., XII (1873), 212. 4 ibid., p. 224. 



66 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

One of his first acts was the disallowance of a measure that was 
probably far in advance of the times but was very suggestive of what 
was to follow. In 1873, 1 Sir George Campbell, a man of most active 
mind and fiery energy who was at this time lieutenant governor of 
Bengal, had with much labor passed through his local legislature an 
ambitious and carefully elaborated scheme for rural municipalities, a 
measure to which he attached much importance. This bill Lord North- 
brook, in pursuance of his determination to "stop the increase of local 
taxation as much as he could," decided to veto, having persuaded 
himself that the additional taxation involved was unnecessary and 
inadvisable and that the people were not yet fit for a compulsory rate 
for education or for the proposed reforms of village government, and 
that it would only provoke discontent. 

In this connection some of Sir George Campbell's opinions are worth 
quoting. 2 Writing of Bengal in 1871-72, he remarked: 

His impression was very strong that if educated gentlemen connected 
with various towns in various parts of the country are asked to give their 
assistance and time and labour for the public good, it is clear that we should 
entrust them with very considerable powers. 

Municipal institutions were indigenous to the country and we might 
hope that in a country where those institutions were in full working order long 
before we had them in the British Isles, in a country in some respects that of 
their birth, such institutions might nourish and rapidly succeed. 

Self-governing institutions were a very essential part in the very constitu- 
tions of the Aryan race. He did not agree in the argument that municipal 
institutions must be the precursor of free political institutions. He believed 
that human reason was so constituted that what was called patriotism and 
public spirit were the natural accompaniments and result of self-government. 
.... If you made a beginning of self-government, public spirit and patriotism 
would result. His object [as lieutenant governor] was to give municipalities 
real self-government and not to make them sham institutions [by subordinating 
them to the magistrates]. No effort should be wanting on his part to render 
municipalities self-governing bodies. He had nothing more at heart, believing 
that municipal government is the shape in which a measure of freedom may 
best be given to and exercised by the people of this country in the present stage 
of their national existence. 

He would rather see a little done voluntarily by the people themselves 
through their representatives than a good deal done under pressure from 

above "I hold," he said, "very earnest views on the subject of local 

self-government. I believe it is our duty to educate the people as far as in our 

1 B. Mallet, Thomas Georgs, Earl of Northbrook, p. 88. 

2 "Local Self-Government in India," Westminster Review, CXXI (1884), 69-70. 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1868-82 67 

power to govern themselves; I believe that the power and the habit of self- 
government must come from below upwards, and that it must come from 
municipal institutions first — going upwards to higher and larger institutions. 
.... I should myself be willing to run the risk of a check in improvements, 
feeling that the power of self-government is even more important than material 
improvement." 

If you are gradually to bring the people to appreciate the system of self- 
government, to lead them to take an interest in their own affairs, they must 
have real and practical powers in their own affairs, and the greatest power of 
all being taxation, they must have real power in respect to taxation. 

In 1873 Mr. Chapman quoted him as writing: 

The lieutenant governor has always believed that while on the one hand 
the task of really governing India down to the villages and the people is too 
great for the British government, and on the other, anything like national 
political freedom is inconsistent with a foreign rule, we may best supplement 
our own deficiencies and give the people that measure of self-government and 
local freedom to which both their old traditions and their modern education 
alike point, by giving to towns and restoring to villages some sort of municipal 
or communal form of self-government. 

Some years ago when chief commissioner of the Central Provinces he made 
a commencement of such a system in Nagpur and other towns. He has had 
that object especially at heart in these provinces, awakening as they are to a 
new light under the influence of the education which we have given to so 
many of the upper and middle classes. Seeing then, the very various and 
confusing nature of the municipal constitutions heretofore existing, the lieuten- 
ant governor has thought it very desirable to consolidate and systematize the 
whole law on the subject, ranging municipalities in different classes and pre- 
scribing a suitable constitution for each, in all of which the element of self- 
government might be largely infused. He has hoped that in this way the 
whole subject may come to be better understood, both by the officers of the 
government and by the people, and that the government may be enabled gradu- 
ally to introduce the privileges and advantages of representative and elective 
institutions. 1 

The first of the municipal acts passed under Lord Northbrook was 
the one for the Punjab in 1873. Of it Mr. Barkley said the bill 2 
was required not so much to facilitate the development of local self-government 
in the towns of the Punjab, the more important of which have possessed it in 
some measure since 1862, as to remove doubts as to the extent of the powers of 
municipal bodies which have arisen from the imperfections of the law under 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XII 
(1873), 182. 

2 Ibid., XXIII (1884), 190-91. 



68 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

which they are at present constituted, and which have placed the committees 
in the unenviable position of not knowing accurately what they are legally 
competent to do and have thus hampered their action in some cases in which 
in the interests of the public it would have been desirable to leave them greater 
scope. These defects were probably unavoidable when the existing law was 
passed, as there had not been sufficient time to gain experience of the working 
of municipal institutions in the Punjab to admit of the framing of anything 
approaching a complete municipal code, and much had therefore to be left to 
by-laws to be made by the committees themselves, which can now be more 
satisfactorily provided for by substantive enactment. 

At the same time as it was thought desirable to give municipal committees 
a more representative character and greater powers of initiative than they had 
hitherto possessed, the Bill dealt in greater detail than the existing law 1 with 
the constitution of municipal bodies, and it also became necessary to state more 
fully the poweis of control necessarily reserved to government and its officers. 

The preamble of the new law 2 explained that it was to provide for 
police conservancy, local improvements, and education in the towns of 
the Punjab, and for levying taxes in them. The committee in each town 
was to consist of not less than five members, who were to be appointed 
in such manner as the local government might prescribe. It was to 
have power to levy rates "subject to any general rules or special orders 
which the governor-general in council might make from time to time." 
After providing for the police from the municipal fund the committee 
should keep the public streets, roads, drains, tanks, and water courses 
of their town clean and in repair; should generally do all acts and things 
necessary for the construction, repair, and maintenance of local public 
works of general utility; and should also provide by the establishment 
of new schools and aiding those already existing "for the promotion of 
education." In general they were to make provision for promoting 
public health and safety, comfort and convenience of the municipality. 
The committee also had power to make by-laws for: (a) defining, 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XII (1873), 
57. The act of 1867 had been passed with a time limit of five years because 
of the skepticism felt as to the advisability of intrusting such broad powers to 
the lieutenant governor, and objections raised to the use of the octroi for fear 
of its economic effects. The five years almost elapsed before anyone bethought 
himself of the five-year provision. In reply to a telegram the lieutenant governor 
asked blandly that the existing law be continued indefinitely. It was continued, but 
only for a year to give time for the passage of a new law. No time was lost and in 
1873 a new act was passed. It was at first planned to pass a general consolidation 
measure for the whole north of India, but the idea was abandoned as not feasible in 
view of the varying conditions in the different localities. 

2 Acts of the Governor-General of India in Council, 1873, Act IV. 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1868-82 69 

prohibiting, and abating nuisances; (b) regulating the detection and 
abatement of nuisances; (c) securing the proper registration of births 
and deaths ; (d) carrying out all or any of the purposes of the act. 

The rules 1 promulgated under the broad powers conferred by the 
act, divided the committees into three classes, of which the third was 
required to have its orders and proceedings confirmed by the deputy 
commissioner before they could take effect. Except in a few of the 
more important municipalities where a portion of the members were 
elected, all of the members of the municipal committees were nominated 
in the Punjab. 

Though the law permitted the committees to be empowered to elect 
their chairmen, the rules enacted by the lieutenant governor in council 
made the deputy commissioner chairman of all the municipal committees 
in his district, and not until the early eighties were a few empowered to 
elect their own. 

In 1873 2 there were only 125 municipalities. In 1874, under the 
new act 63 were added. By 1881 3 municipalities had been established 
in 195 of the 238 existing towns with a population of over five thousand. 
By 1883, when the new act resulting from Lord Ripon's concessions was 
under consideration, there were 202 municipalities. Only twelve had 
a population of over twenty-five thousand, and three of these were the 
great cities of Delhi, Lahore, and Amritsar. Sixty-nine 4 per cent of the 
old municipalities in small towns established by executive order were 
brought under this act. In the rest the municipal form of taxation was 
replaced by the chaukidari system. This reversion to dependence on 
the village punchayets or governing councils (nominally supposed to 
consist of five elders) was possible because many municipalities 5 in the 
Punjab were simply large agricultural villages with little or no artisan 
population. 

In 1873 a new municipal act was also passed for the Northwestern 
Provinces and Oudh. 6 The chief reason was that Oudh, to which the 
Punjab act had been extended, was on the verge of being without a law 
because of the expiration of the one-year extension of the five-year 
limitation on the Punjab Act of 1867. Instead of including Oudh with 
the Punjab in the new act, it was thought to be more similar in features 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 527- 

2 Ibid., XXIII (1884), 191. 

3 Ibid. s Ibid., p. 191. 

4 Ibid., p. 224. 6 Ibid., XII, 208. 



70 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

to the Northwestern Provinces and it was therefore included with them 
in the new act. In its provisions this act was similar to the previous one 
for the Northwestern Provinces. 1 

Under the act of 1873, 2 there were by 1883 in the Northwestern 
Provinces 109 municipalities with a total population slightly in excess 
of three millions. Members of the municipal committees, were appointed 
in some places by election only, in others by nomination only, and in 
others again by election and nomination combined. The principle of 
election had been put into operation in 73 municipalities. There were 
438 ex officio members, as against 1,022 nominated or chosen by election. 3 
An income of Rs 2,330,837 was raised by taxation, of which 88 per cent 
was derived from octroi duties and the average incidence of taxation 
per head was 1 2 annas. 

As for the general working of the municipalities, Mr. Quinton 4 in the 
course of the debate of the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh Municipal 
Act of 1884, said: 

Anyone conversant with the conditions of the towns and cities of upper 
India twenty -five years ago who compares it with their present state must admit 
that the improvement effected by municipal administration in matters affecting 
the public health, safety, and convenience is immense. 

I may perhaps be permitted to mention the cities of Lucknow, Allahabad, 
and Cawnpore of which I have personal knowledge, and in the two former of 
which a considerable portion of my official life has been spent. These cities 
are now distinguished by wide and handsome streets, excellent roads, com- 
paratively good drainage, which is daily improving, and efficient conservancy, 
all brought about by municipal committees in whose proceedings some of the 
leading and more intelligent citizens took an active part. 

In Lucknow, my friend Nazim Agha Ali Khan Bahadur, commonly known 
as the Aga Sahib, and the late Daroga Wajid Ali, so conspicuous for his loyal 
services to the British government during the mutiny, interested themselves 
above others in municipal affairs, and rendered invaluable assistance in munici- 
pal administration. 

Similar public spirit to that manifested by these gentlemen and others 
was not universal and the system under which the satisfactory results I have 

1 Published in full in the Acts of the Governor-General of India in Council, 1873, 
Act XV (Nov. 21, 1873). 

2 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 549. 

3 Sir Evelyn Baring, "Recent Events in India," Nineteenth Century Review, XIV 
(1883), 581. 

■* Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 549-5°- 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1868-82 71 

just alluded to were obtained depended largely for success in the first instance 
on the presence on the committees of ex officio members. The number, how- 
ever, of non-official residents of towns and cities who evince an intelligent 
interest in municipal business has been gradually increasing and it is believed 
that the time has now come when the co-operation of officials on most municipal 
boards is no longer needed. 

The expiration of the extension of the five-year limitation also necessitated 
some action in regard to the Central Provinces 1 in which it had been extended 
to some dozen towns. It was finally decided to introduce a separate act. The 
law was modelled closely on the Punjab Act of 1873 without any important 
variations. 

The chief interest on the law centered about a vigorous effort during 
the debate to secure a promise from the government that it would pass 
a general law applicable to all India in place of the separate measures. 
The proposal was defeated on the grounds principally that such a law 
would be unworkable even if, as proposed, municipalities were classified 
into groups of similar towns, and special general provisions made for 
each type. 

The Central Provinces Municipal Act of 1873, 2 

was drawn in a manner which left much to the discretion of the local govern- 
ment in the way of introducing popular election of members and leaving the 
committees free from direct official interference. Sir John Morris, the chief 
commissioner, was very favorable to the growth of popular institutions; so 
that when Lord Ripon took up the matter in 1881 he found that the system 
of popular election had been established in 60 out of 61 municipalities in the 
Central Provinces. 3 

He [Sir John Morris] was able to point to certain municipalities as being 
especially distinguished for excellent work. Year after year they had been 
commended for the energy and good sense displayed in the discharge of their 
duties, for their administrative capacity, and for the improvements they had 
effected. These were notably not the municipalities, where the deputy com- 
missioner .... was the source of all activity. The best work was done by 
the committees of outlying stations where there is no resident deputy com- 
missioner, or of large stations where his other numerous and arduous duties 
had compelled him to leave most of the work to the members themselves. 

1 Published in full in the Acts of the Governor -General of India in Council, 1873, 
Act XI (July 24, 1873); see also Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor- 
General of India, XII, 177-78. 

2 A. H. L. Fraser, "Local Self-Government in the Central Provinces of India," 
Fortnightly Review, XLV (May- June, 1886), 240. 

3 Sir Evelyn Baring gave the figures as 58 out of 62, loc. cit. 



72 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

In Bombay also, 1873, 1 a new act was passed for the municipalities. 
Its chief feature was the effort made to adapt the principle of municipal 
government to the province and make it more popular by dividing the 
municipalities into city and town municipalities on the basis of popula- 
tion. The dividing line was drawn at ten thousand inhabitants. In the 
cities this act (VI of 1873) provided that the executive power should be 
intrusted to the municipal commissioners as a body, and in towns to a 
president, vice-president, and chairman. This distinction did not work 
well and was abolished in the act of 1884 (No. III). The act of 1901 
(also No. Ill), however, restored it. The other chief change inaugurated 
by the act of 1873 2 was in the size of the body of commissioners. The 
town municipalities were restricted by a limit of twelve to the number 
of non-official appointees, who must comprise at least half the member- 
ship. The elective franchise was permitted to be granted to city and 
town municipalities where the residents showed sufficient public spirit 
to justify the measure. As a matter of fact, however, under none of the 
Bombay 3 acts was the elective principle introduced prior to Ripon's 
reforms, outside of the city of Bombay itself. In 1882 the control of 
local elementary education was given to the municipalities. 

The year 1874 4 saw municipal government also provided for in 
Burma. In 1861 a bill had been introduced into the old Imperial 
Legislative Council to extend the Municipal Act of 1850, and the Town 
Police Act (No. XX) of 1856 to the towns of Maulmein, Rangoon, Tavoy, 
and Mergui, in Burma. The measure had, however, died with the old 
Legislative Council. 

In 1874 5 a new law was finally passed. In general it was patterned 
after the model of the elaborate Bengal Act of 1873, which had been 
disallowed, but it lacked the radical features of that measure. It gave 
the power of establishing municipal committees into the hands of the 
chief commissioner, subject to protest of the townspeople upon the 
publication of the notice of intention to introduce the system. The 
chief commissioner could, however, override the protest. The com- 
mittees were to consist of at least three members who were subject to 

1 W. W. Hunter, Imperial Gazetteer of India, VIII, 365. 

2 This act is published in full in the Bombay Code, 1880, pp. 430 et seq. 
i Sir Evelyn Baring, loc. cit. 

4 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, VII (1861), 
cols. 22, 27, 37, 38, 39, 142, 244, 410. 

5 This law is published in full in the Acts of the Governor-General of India in Council, 
1874, Act VII (March 24, 1874). 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1868-82 73 

removal by the chief commissioner. Three-fifths were to be non- 
officials. They were to be appointed or elected as the chief commissioner 
might direct. The law went into considerable detail as to procedure, 
the method of levying taxes, particularly the house tax. Other taxes 
were the carriage tax, license fees for markets, wharves, and slaughter 
houses. A special house rate was authorized for lighting and for water. 
As a matter of fact, 1 under this act the members of the municipal 
committees were appointed in every place except Rangoon and Maul- 
mem, where the elective system was introduced early in the eighties. 
After the disallowance of the measure of 1873, it was not until 1876 
that a new measure was passed for Bengal. This act was a consolidation 
of the District Municipalities Improvement Act of 1864 and the District 
Towns Act of 1868. 

The act 2 made elaborate provision for the conduct of the munici- 
pality. It divided them into two classes on the basis of population. 
Those with a population of over fifteen thousand with a density of two 
thousand or over per square mile were placed in class one. In the second 
class were those municipalities which the magistrate certified that three- 
quarters of the population were engaged in non-agricultural pursuits, 
and the density of population was over one thousand to the square mile. 
With these restrictions the lieutenant governor was given the power to 
extend the act by simple notification in the official gazette. In each 
municipality so instituted he was to appoint commissioners, not less 
than seven or more than thirty in those of the first class and not less than 
four or more than twenty in those of the second. Not more than one- 
fourth of the commissioners were to be officials. 

Upon the petition of a third of the rate-payers the lieutenant governor 
might introduce the elective system under such rules as he should think 
fit. The magistrate of the district and of the division, together with the 
district medical officer, were to be ex officio commissioners. Unless the 
lieutenant governor made special provision, the magistrate in charge 
was to be ex officio chairman. The commissioners were, however, to 
elect their own vice-chairman subject to the approval of the lieu- 
tenant governor. 

The expenditures incurred by the municipalities were restricted first 
of all to the police, second to the interest on municipal debts, and third 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 514. - 

2 This act is published in full in the Acts of the Legislative Council of the Lieu- 
tenant Governor of Bengal (1876), Act V. 



74 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

to the upkeep of the municipal establishment. Any balance then 
remaining might be expended for (a) the construction and improvement 
of roads, bridges, embankments, squares, gardens, tanks, ghats, wharves, 
jetties, wells, channels, drains, privies, latrines, and urinals; (b) the 
supply of water, and the lighting and watering of roads ; (c) the erection 
and maintenance of offices, police stations, and other buildings required 
for municipal purposes; (d) other works of public utility calculated to 
promote the health, comfort, or convenience of the inhabitants; (e) the 
construction and repair of schoolhouses and the establishment and 
maintenance of schools, either wholly or by means of grants in aid; (/) 
the establishment and maintenance of hospitals and dispensaries; and 
the promotion of vaccination. Elaborate stipulations were made for the 
assessment and collection of the taxes, which were limited to two prin- 
cipal levies — a tax on buildings and one on land holdings — supplemented 
by a tax on carriages, on horses and other animals, a registration fee for 
carts, tolls on ferries, bridges, and metalled roads. The commissioners 
were closely supervised in their accounts. The elective principle, how- 
ever, was as a matter of fact only introduced into three municipalities 
in Bengal outside of Calcutta. 1 

In reality all of these municipal acts of both the sixties and seventies 
were official control masquerading in places under the robes of elections, 
but this fact does not by any means imply that they were due to illiberal- 
ity on the part of the English government. It is true that with some few 
exceptions the tone of the debates does not indicate any great eagerness 
to accord self-government as anything more than a sanitary, police, or 
financial measure, and but little more than lip approval to the doctrine 
of the desirability of popular control and self-government. On the other 
hand, almost without exception, they were experienced administrators 
and clearly conscious of the obstacles in the way of the development 
of self-government. Whatever idealism they cherished was strictly 
constrained by a realization of the actual conditions. They knew the 
antipathy of the natives to change, their indifference to sanitation, and 
their lack of anything approaching civic spirit, and the seriousness to 
their caste and religious cleavages. 2 

1 Sir Evelyn Baring, loc. cit. 

2 As Mr. Maine said in the course of the debate on the Municipal Act for the 
Northwestern Provinces in 1868: 

He knew little personally of the Northwest but he did know that in some of the 
Northwestern cities Hindus and Mohammedans were mixed together and it was all 



MUNICIPALITIES, 1868-82 75 

What the natives themselves thought of the measure is indicated by 
the remarks of the two princes who participated in the debates. The 
Maharaja of Vizinagram said, 

I do think that wherever the municipal committees have been formed they 
have been the means of doing much good, as I can say from my own experience 
in my own country in Northern Circars, Benares, Madras and other places. 
Now for instance in Benares the features of that city are formed in such a way 
that it is indeed one of the most difficult places to introduce municipal com- 
mittees and to make those useful and healthy rules and reforms for the benefit 
of that city. For the last many years, or I should say ever since the munici- 
pality has been introduced into Benares, the local government has exerted 
itself in a praiseworthy manner but in most of the other places in India the 
features of the country do not require any amount of such extra labor for 
establishing municipalities. Now, my Lord, generally speaking the natives 
of India have shown and still show to a great extent antipathy, let that innova- 
tion be however healthy and beneficial to the places where such municipalities 
are proposed to be established, and where such municipalities have been 
established. 1 

The opinion of Raja Thakua 2 was more concise and indicates a 
suggestive attitude toward the government. 

He found from the draft of the Bill in his hands [the Northwestern Prov- 
inces Act of 1873] that the taxes and municipal rules and regulations for the 
conservancy were left subject to the approval of the local government. If 
that were the case, he was convinced that the committee if they were inclined 
to do any mischief would not be able to do it because the government, who was 
the protector of the people, would prevent the committee from doing any 
mischief. 

It must also be borne in mind that in all these laws not only were 
the concessions in the way of native control in reality small, but the 

PROPORTION OF MUNICIPAL POPULATION TO THE 
TOTAL POPULATION 

Per Cent 

Bengal (exclusive of Calcutta and suburbs) 3§ 

Northwestern Provinces 11 

Oudh 5 

Madras 3 

Punjab 12 

Central Provinces 8 

Bombay (exclusive of Bombay and Karachi) 10J 



that the administrative skill and vigor of English officials could do to keep peace 
between them. — Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, 
VII (1868), 127-28. 

1 Ibid., XII (1873), 228. 2 Ibid., p. 228. 



76 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

proportion of the population which enjoyed even these was insignificant, 
as the table for 1873, on page 75, indicates. 1 

Another and more independent native estimation of the sincerity of 
the municipal measures is as follows: 2 

The theory of the thing is that municipal administration is synonymous 
with self-government, that the municipality is required to meet certain charges 
for which it raises its own revenue, and that the fullest discretion being left to 
it for regulating the revenue to be raised, such taxation ought not to be dis- 
tasteful. The principle inculcated is of course a wholesome one, but viewed 
in connection with the actual state of things in the country is but a blind- 
The people at present are not prepared for self-government, and in point of 
fact there is no self-government among them — -except to a very partial extent 
in some of the more important metropolitan towns. In all other places the 
scheme works wholly as a sham, and is accepted by the people as such having 
been set up as they say for the express purpose of getting money out of their 
pockets on the pretence that they pay it of their own accord. Actually they 
do not pay it willingly. They pay it simply at the dictation of the official 
members of the municipal committees, and this is very well known to the 
government. Sir George Campbell in his taxation report to the government of 
India mentioned it as a fact that the rate of municipal taxation was higher in 
those places where the non-official members took the largest share in the admin- 
istration than where the municipality was mainly administered by the officers 
of the government. The instances cited were those of Calcutta, Howrah, 
and Dacca; but he very well knew that in all those places the great bulk of 
the non-official members are merely cyphers, or as they have since been named 
by the local press, ap-ke-wasta [that is, voting with the president or chairman] 
members, having no opinion of their own apart from that of their president or 
leader. This can be recognized as self-government only by giving that expres- 
sion a very great latitude of meaning. 

What this system of so-called self-government has led to is the imposition 
of a series of taxes, tolls, and imposts which were unknown before, and which 
every man — -even every member of a municipal corporation — -grumbles at. 

The visit of the tax-gatherer which is irritating to all people in all places 
is especially so in a country where till now it was unknown in its frequency. 
The Bengal Municipalities Act has been paraded by its authors as the first 
instalment of self-government conceded to the people; but the people are not 
thankful for the concession, they smart under the exactions it has introduced; 
and if the long list of possible taxes imposable at the discretion of the munici- 
palities were known, the alarm would be yet greater for all the self-government 
implied by their existence. The question whether the concession of self- 
government or the fitness for it should precede is rather an awkward one to 
raise at this moment. A move in the right direction ought always to fructify; 
but to be in the right direction it ought to be right minded. 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, VII 
(1868), 220. 

2 S. Chunder Dutt, "Taxation in India," Fraser's Magazine, XCIV (July-Dec, 

1876), 316-17. 



CHAPTER VI 

REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 

The preliminaries of Lord Ripon's reforms 

Degree of the development of self-government in 1881 
The restlessness in India 
Factors 

The Suez Canal 
The press 

Its growth 

Anti-British tendencies 
Education and the appearance of an educated class 
The liberal victory and the arrival of Lord Ripon 
Conditions confronting Lord Ripon 
Deficit 
Famine 
Restlessness 
Policy adopted by Lord Ripon — concessions to and guidance of native aspira- 
tions 
Lord Ripon's explanation of the occasion for the reforms 

Necessity of native help in the government 
The resolution of May 18, 1882 
Reception of the proposals 
English opinion 

Skepticism on the general principle 

Fear of effect on the government, especially the district officer 

Approval and hopes 

The year 1878, in which the Madras act was passed, closes a period 
in the development of self-government in India. Lytton's imbroglio 
in Afghanistan rang down the curtain of an act in India's drama. He 
left the stage set for a manifestation of a new spirit in the Indian govern- 
ment and among the Indian peoples. 

So far the development of self-government, aside from the admission 
of selected natives to the legislative councils had been in the municipali- 
ties. In them it was a matter of administrative and financial expediency 
unmixed with any considerable thought of political development. 

Any idea of the Indians becoming really political factors does not 
seem to have existed. There was plenty of lip service to the political 

77 



78 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

« 

potentialities of Indians, but when it came to actualities, the district 
officer's hand was really never off the helm, and usually he was rather 
in the position of giving a practical exhibition of how to handle the ship 
before a more or less carefully selected group in the pilot house. 

Thus the political events of India and the world at large after the 
mutiny had impinged but little upon the municipalities, for the natives 
were ignorant of and indifferent to what was transpiring beyond their 
exceedingly restricted horizon. 

For some years, however, powerful influences had been at work. 
Chief among these was education, and contributing to it were the press 
and the Suez Canal. 

The Suez Canal was completed in 1869, and it soon brought India 
within the influence of Europe by enabling the officials who governed 
her to return more frequently to Europe and by enormously stimulating 
commercial intercourse. India was thus brought more and more within 
the purview of the people of England, and English tourists and visitors 
to India became more and more frequent, especially as the steamship 
became more and more perfected. 

These first stirrings of native opinion as expressed by their vernacular 
press became increasingly noticeable during the seventies and were not 
relished by the government. It was not believed that they represented 
in any way the masses, 1 but the English rulers were none the less some- 
what perturbed, and there was an uneasiness even as far as England, 
where its significance was discussed to a slight extent. 2 

1 Thornton, during the debate on the Press Law of 1878, said: 

1 can confidently assert that the writers or editors of the disloyal articles of which 
we complain no more represent the real feelings of the people of India than Doctor 
Kenealy may be said to represent the true sentiments of Englishmen. My experience 
is to the effect that they are for the most part disappointed ex-employees of the govern- 
ment, broken down vakils, disappointed candidates for government service or ex-eleves 
of government institutions who, after having been educated by the state at an enormous 
cost, are indignant because at the close of their academical career they have not been 
presented instanter with a lucrative government appointment. — Proceedings of the 
Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XVII (1878), 165. 

Maharaja Jolindra Mohan Tagore added his voice in corroboration, and repu- 
diated on behalf of the educated native all sympathy with the scurrilous press. — 
Ibid., p. 167. 

2 The press was no new feature in India. The first paper was the Bengali Gazette, 
better known as Hickey's Gazette. This was established in 1780 at Calcutta. The 
scurrility of its articles was notorious, attacking everything from Warren Hastings 
to the missionaries and young women just arrived for the marriage mart. An attempt 
was finally made to assassinate Mr. Hickey, and the paper disappeared soon afterward. 

The Bengali Gazette was followed in November of the same year in which it was 
founded (1870) by the Indian Gazette and in 1 794 by the Indian World. William Duane, 



REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 79 

One of the opinions is suggestive and still largely true. It ran: 

There are, however, two peculiarities of the country to be considered, if we 
would estimate aright the influence of the Indian press, as compared with that 
of other countries; the first is, the enormous number of persons who read [or 
get read to theml each copy of an Indian paper; the second is, the compara- 
tively small number of individuals among all these vast populations whose 
opinions are of any political importance as the leaders of the masses. With 
regard to the first point, it must be remembered that each copy of an Indian 
paper will circulate for a much longer time, and with a much wider range, than 
any paper would in Europe. The date of a paper goes for nothing among the 
Hindus, and it continues to be read as long as it holds together. It may safely 
be said that if a single copy reaches a village, or even a large collection of 
villages, its contents will sooner or later become known to nearly every man 
residing in the neighborhood. And with regard to the second point, the 
vernacular papers are universally read by every chief, and by every high 
official and the other great men, in every one of the 460 native states in India; 
they are read by all the innumerable native employees of our administration, 
by the students and teachers in all our thousands of schools and colleges, 
and by a very large proportion of the great landed proprietors and rich mer- 
chants and bankers throughout the country. 

These are the classes by whom the vernacular press is studied, and whose 
opinions it to some extent influences, as a matter of course; and it cannot be 
doubted that through these classes it filters down to and largely influences, 
for good or for evil, a very considerable fraction of the masses of the 
people x 

No echoes of the utterances of the native papers can reach them [the 
officials] unless sought out in the discharge of sacred duty, for the vernacular 



the Irish-American editor of the latter paper, was summarily arrested and deported 
without trial. These were all Calcutta newspapers and printed in English. 

In Bombay the English press began its activities in 1789 in the shape of the 
Bombay Herald. In Madras there were before 181 7 three English newspapers. 

The vernacular press was much later in starting. , It was begun by the missionaries 
and almost down to the mutiny confined itself to religious subjects. It was not, how- 
ever, until the decade 1870-80 that the activities of the native press gave much concern 
to the government. 

It was the English press itself that monopolized the attention of the authorities 
in the earlier years. Since the repeal in 1858 by Canning of the emergency gagging 
act of the mutiny it too had been without restraint. G. P. Pillai, "The Origin and 
Growth of the Press in India," Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, 3d Ser., VII 
(1899), 16-38. 

1 L. Roper, "The Vernacular Press of India," Contemporary Review, XXXVII 
(Jan.-June, 1880), 462-63. 



8o 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 



press is absolutely unknown to Englishmen in India except to officials who read 
it as a matter of duty, and perhaps to a few professors and missionaries. 1 

During the decade of 1870-80 the vernacular press underwent an 
extensive development in numbers 2 and radically altered its tone. 3 

1 L. Roper, op. cit., p. 468. 

2 The following are a few figures illustrative of the growth of the vernacular press 
of India. In North India there were 28 vernacular papers published in 1850; in 1878 
there were 97. In Lower Bengal in 1850, 16 papers; in 1878, 39. There were 41 
in the Northwestern Provinces and 34 in Punjab. In 1880 there were in all India some 
230 native newspapers. Of these 100 were printed in Urdu; 45 in Marathi; 40 in 
Bengali; and 30 in Gujarathi. The largest circulation however was only 5,000. The 
total circulation was about 150,000. 

The relative numbers of the English and vernacular papers and their distribution 
in 1875 is shown by the following table. These figures represent the conditions 



Province 


English 


Vernacular 


English and 
Vernacular 




35 
36 
35 

9 
10 

4 

3 
14 

9 


62 
23 
59 
59 

30 
7 
4 
5 
3 
2 


21 




25 




s 


Northwestern Provinces 


5 
1 


Oudh 


8 


Central Provinces 


2 




1 




1 










155 


254 


69 







before Lytton's vernacular press act, and a comparison of the totals with those just 
above indicates its effect. — Contemporary Review, XXXVII (1880), 461-62; G. P. 
Pillai, op. cit., p. 34. 

3 a) Sir Ashley Eden, as lieutenant governor of Bengal (1877-82) said in Council: 

The evil has long been felt by the government of Bengal, and I believe by nearly 

all the other local governments What government does object to is the 

sedition and gross disloyalty of some of the vernacular papers, and their attempts 
to sow the seeds of disaffection to the British rule in the minds of ignorant people. — 
S. M. Mitra, "Analysis of Indian Unrest," Fortnightly Review, XCV (1911), 145- 

b) Sir Richard Temple, whose cue it was to describe the Bengalis as loyal, wrote 
in the Administration Reports for 1874-75 and 1875-76 of the leanings of the vernacular 
press toward "political observations of an evil tendency," of the increasing disposi- 
tion to complain of everything which exists, and he wrote, after his retirement: 

This uneasiness and restlessness — all the more irksome as arising from no definable 
cause, and not being susceptible of any specific remedy — found vent in the vernacular 
press. Of these utterances some were certainly disloyal, or even worse, while others 
were merely captious, peevish, fractious, petulant. — Ibid., cited from Sir R. Temple, 
Men and Events of My Time in India (1882), p. 432. 

c) Even Sir George Campbell, the liberal lieutenant governor of Bengal 
1871-74, wrote, "We were a good deal troubled by abusive and sometimes seditious 



REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 81 

This change led during the Afghan trouble to the passage of a native 
press bill. 1 

The reasons for this act were best expressed in its preamble : 2 

Whereas, Certain publications 3 in Oriental languages printed or circulated 
in British India have of late contained matter likely to exact disaffection to the 
government established by law in British India or antipathy between persons 



attacks on the governing powers." — S. M. Mitra, op. cit., cited from Sir C. E. Bernard, 
Memories of My Indian Career, II (1893), 314-15. 

d) Sir Arbuthnot in the course of the debate on the press bill said, 

The native press includes many respectable papers .... entitled to every 
encouragement But there is also a large and increasing class of native news- 
papers which would seem to exist only for the sake of spreading seditious principles, 
of bringing the government and its European officers into contempt and of exciting 
antagonism between the governing race and the people of the country. This 
description of writing is not of recent growth but there has been a marked increase 
in it of late and especially during the last three or four years. During the past twelve 
months it has been worse than ever, the writers gaining in boldness as they find that 
their writings are allowed to pass unpunished. — Proceedings of the Legislative Council 
of the Governor-General of India, XVII (1878), 148. 

1 Acts of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, 1878, Act IX 
(March 14, 1878). The law itself read: 

Section 3. Any magistrate of district or commissioner of police in a presi- 
dency town within the local limits of whose jurisdiction any newspaper is printed, 
may with previous sanction of the local government and subject to provisions 
of Section 5 call upon the printer and publisher of such newspaper to enter into a 
joint and several bond, .... binding themselves .... in such sum as the local 
government thinks fit, not to; (a) print or publish in such newspaper any words, 
signs, or visible representations likely to excite disaffection to the government 
established by law in British India, or antipathy between any persons of dif- 
erent races, castes, religions, or sects in British India; or (b) use or attempt to 
use such paper for purposes of putting any person in fear, or causing annoyance to 
him, and thereby inducing him to deliver to any person anything signed or 
sealed which may be converted into a valuable security or to give any gratification 
to any person; or for the purpose of holding out any threat of injury to a public servant 
or to any person in whom they or he believe or believes that public servant to be 
interested and thereby inducing that public servant to do any act connected with 
the exercise of his public functions. 

2 Ibid., loc. cit. 

3 The character of the press in the estimation of the government is illustrated by 
the following selection from the debate on the bill. Sir Arbuthnot said: 

Their principal topics are the injustice and tyranny of the British government, 
its utter want of consideration toward its native subjects, and the insolence and pride 
of Englishmen in India, both official and non-official. There is no crime, however 
heinous and no meanness however vile which according to these writers is not habit- 
ually practiced by their English rulers. According to them, "The government is 
not a just, but a monstrous government. As monsters are said to eat their 
own children, the English government is destroying its own children — its subjects. 
.... Avarice, frugality, and cunning characterize all the acts and measures of 
Englishmen. Their rulers violate with pleasure the laws and regulations which 
they have enacted. The British government is continually breaking its promises. 
A history of the non-fulfillment of promises by the British government would be 
the history of the last one hundred and fifty years. One of the objects of the 



82 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

of different races, castes, religions, or sects in British India or have been used 
as means of intimation or extortion; and 

Whereas, Such publications are read by and disseminated amongst large 
numbers of ignorant and unintelligent persons and are thus likely to have an 
influence which they otherwise would not possess; and 

Whereas, It is accordingly necessary for the maintenance of public tran- 
quillity and for the security of Her Majesty's subjects and others to confer on 
the executive government power to control the printing and circulation of such 
publications 



English authorities in maintaining and enhancing the salt tax is to enable their own 
countrymen to import English salt into this country and to enrich them at the cost 
of the natives." 

One writer ironically affirms that "neither the laws of nature nor the civil laws 
of India provide any punishment for those Europeans who kill natives. The laws 
of nature ascribe such fatal incidents to destiny and the civil laws are helpless because 
Europeans are the dominant race." "All laws are applicable to natives alone and 
not to Europeans. Europeans are enabled to kill natives with perfect impunity." 
"Of those diseases which prove fatal one is the European plague which is daily spread- 
ing over the country and for which no remedy has yet been found. We refer to the 
readiness of Europeans to assault and sometimes murder natives " — Proceed- 
ings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XVII (1878), 149. 

Lord Lytton added the following : 

One typical specimen of the art of allegorical calumny .... in the Sulabha 
Samachar which has the largest circulation [about five thousand] of any vernacular 
paper in India, the Macgregor trial was travested in an article .... [on December 
29]. The prisoner is named Mr. Rogue of the factory at Kritantapur [the city of 
death]; the doctor whose evidence saves him from hanging is Dr. Brile; and after 
the conclusion of the mock trial, the judge, the doctor, and Mr. Rogue dine together 
and afterwards go a-hunting 

Both in Bengal and in Bombay the worst inferences are generally concealed in 
the form of innuendoes, for example a mighty and widespread conflagration is 
often preceded by common smoke, the English, proud of the power of their bayonets, 
tread on the heads of the whole Indian population and 25,000 Englishmen are ruling 
250,000,000 natives; but the conclusion is wisely left to the imagination 

In another place it says : 

"Englishmen speak of the decline of the military power and loss of their pres- 

tage as a nation " After declaring that "England has become enervated from too 

much addiction to luxury and therefore is unwilling to encounter Russia in the field, 
instances Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon Bonaparte as examples that those who 
have attained the imperial dignity have come to a disastrous end .... and prophesies 
the same result will follow the Imperial Assemblage at Delhi." 

The Koran of Bombay: "England has been showing thorough effeminateness 
from the beginning of this war, that a sharp communication from Russia was sufficient 
to cool its spirit, that England has never been famous for heroism. According to 
popular belief it owes its great Indian Empire more to diplomacy and craftiness than 
to bravery, goes on to say that England yielding to the mere appearance of Russia, her 

inactivity makes the natives of India very uneasy about their own safety As 

soon as Russia gains a footing in India, the English will have no alternative than to 
flee for their lives." 

Arya Warta follows the negative plan 

If we were to write that the Englishmen in India are very few, though the natives 
are not brave, but weak and unarmed, yet if they wish they can blow away the English 



REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 83 

The scheme of the measure 1 was to permit any district magistrate or 
commissioner of police in a presidency town with the previous sanction 
of the local government to require the printer or publisher to give bond 
that he would not print articles tending to rouse race feeling and dis- 
affection, or use his paper for the purpose of blackmail. 2 



even by their breath, and so to advise the natives to unite and drive the English out 
of the country, this advice would be "pernicious to us," and "treasonable." 

Malwa Akbar of Indor, capital of Mahratta 
gives as a rumor that has perceptibly affected trade and the money market, that Nana 
Saheb is about to invade India with a Russian army and will establish once more the 
dominions of the Peshwas through the auspices of the Czar, Satara, Baroda, Nagpur, 
Jhansi, etc. being formed into feudatory kingdoms acknowledge the suzerainty of the 

Peshwa 

Later the same paper said : 

The main object of the English in this country consists in wheedling the people out 
of their money by all manner of tricks 

A belief has lately grown up in the minds of natives that native rule has many 
advantages: the Hindus have begun to think the Mussulmans to be natives. The 
English will not be able to resist the progress of Russian arms in India. Our English 
military officers now think fighting to be a great sin. — Ibid., pp. 178-79. 

1 G. P. Pillai, op. cit., p. 16. In brief, the history of the censorship of the press 
in India prior to Lord Lytton's regime is shown in the following chronology: 

1 780-1 799 — The press in embryonic stage. Regulation largely informal and arbitrary. 
1799-1818 — Severe censorship, due in part to the exigencies of wars with France and 

native states. 
1818-1835 — The wars were terminated. The censorship was relaxed but certain 

restrictions were retained. 
1835-1857 — Lord Metcalfe in 1835 removed the last restrictions from the press, 

giving from then on absolute freedom of the press. 
1857-1878 — During the mutiny a Gagging Act was passed restricting the press, but 

Canning repealed it in 1858 again leaving the press unrestrained until 

Lord Lytton's act of 1878, which was repealed by Lord Ripon in 1882. 

2 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XVII 
(1878), 183. The occidental finds it somewhat difficult to appreciate the blackmail 
provisions of the law. Lord Lytton thus described the practice: 

To natives of distinction the publicity of newspaper abuse is probably far more 
galling and intolerable than it is to any class of Europeans, and a native would be very 
unwilling to add to this publicity by going into the court and suing his libeller. Cases 

are also rarely noticed by translators A native gentleman of high position 

writing to us from Peshwar complained that the editors of certain vernacular papers 
habitually attack the character of innocent people who cannot afford to satisfy their 
cupidity. They force people to subscribe to their papers and write against those who 
refuse to comply with their request. Rajas .... and chiefs dread him [the editor] 
under the impression that he may write against them as he did against their compeers. 
They therefore subscribe to his newspapers and assign him an annual sum of money. 
The editor calls over each year to each state, receives money, khilats and sumptuous 
meals and comes back. 

The practice was also used to intimidate native judges and magistrates ajid 
affected native officers. 



84 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The growth of the press was only a manifestation of the appearance 
of the educated class that supported and edited the papers. Their 
development was a feature of the decade of the seventies. The uni- 
versities of 1 Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras had been established as 
examining bodies for the various colleges in which the actual instruction 
was carried out, and the graduates, almost entirely Hindus and largely 
Brahmins, had been issuing from their examination halls in steadily 
increasing numbers. 2 

Indian education is a story by itself, but a few of its most important 
features must be considered, for of all the influences at work in develop- 
ing self-government in India it is probably the most important. By 
tradition and religion the Hindus were inclined to the literary type of 
education. 3 This tendency was strengthened by the theory and practice 
of England's own system of education. As a result, the requirements 

^'Ripon's Edinborough Speech," Voice of India, III (Dec, 1885), iii. In 1857 
the three universities of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay were incorporated by act 
of the Indian Legislature; the fourth university, that of the Punjab, was added to 
them in 1882. The constitution of these bodies was mainly modelled on that of the 
London University, and their function is that of examination, not of instruction. In 
the ten years from 1873-74 to 1882-83, 23,472 persons passed the matriculation of 
the three older universities. 

Below the universities stood a numerous body of colleges and secondary schools, 
numbering in all in 1881-82 59 colleges, and 3,916 schools, with an attendance of 
5,299 students in the colleges and 214,077 pupils in the secondary schools. 

At the bottom of the educational ladder were the primary schools which numbered 
in 1881-82, 82,916, with an attendance of 2,061,541 pupils. 

2 J. Kennedy, "Indian Educational Policy," Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly 
Review, 3d Ser., XIX (1905), 3. This class, however, was relatively but a microscopic 
one. For ages learning in India had been the much-prized privilege of the few, a 
monopoly of the Brahmins, not the common heritage of the masses. 

The educational policy of the government followed the same groove, and the 
stress had been laid on the higher education, with relative neglect of the primary, 
partly because of the appalling expense and practical impossibility of the task in a 
poverty-stricken continent with the immensity of population possessed by India; 
partly, too, because the immediate need of the government was for the more highly 
educated to aid in the work of administration; and partly because it harmonized with 
the native practice. In fact little was done for primary education before 1872, and 
by 1882 there were only 82,916 schools with 2,000,000 pupils in a population of nearly 
two hundred millions. 

The effect of this policy was to create a highly educated but numerically impercep- 
tible intelligentsia, chafing and restless amid a vast, inert, unaware mass of illiterates. 

3 Both the Hindus and Mohammedans had well-developed and established 
systems of education. In many cases they did not go beyond the three "R's," but 
in both there were higher levels, especially in grammar, rhetoric, logic, theology, 



REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 85 

for degrees produced men fitted only to be government clerks, teachers, 
or lawyers. Western education did not appeal to the Mohammedans 
who clung to the Persian language and the Koran. Consequently the 
Hindus until recently have monopolized the education, and by virtue 
of the requirement of a university degree for the higher grades of the 
public service, almost eliminated the Moslems from that sphere. 
Government service could not, by any means, however, absorb all the 
output of the colleges, and many were forced to turn to journalism for 
a livelihood or drag out an impecunious discontented life without any 
particular vocation. Naturally in many cases their disappointment 
engendered bitterness which very often became focussed on the govern- 
ment. Thus it was that a class came into being ready to criticize, to 
agitate, and to lead in any movement against the English raj. 1 

The sentiment was still further intensified by the subjects which 
the government with sublime confidence in its own culture and 
marvellous recklessness of consequences prescribed for its Indian 



metaphysics, literature, jurisprudence, and science among the Mohammedans, and 
among the Hindus in Sanscrit, grammar, logic, philosophy, and law. 

Both systems were private and charity supported, and in this respect in entire 
accord with the English practice. Warren Hastings, however, in 1782 founded the 
Calcutta Madrasa for Mohammedans, and in 1791 the Benares College for Hindus 
was established. These and similar institutions were devoted to oriental languages. 

The most powerful single force in developing Indian education along occidental 
lines has undoubtedly been the missionaries. First on the field were the Jesuits, but 
their system fell away with the decline of Portugal. The earliest of the Protestant 
institutions were begun by the Baptists. In 1818 Cary and his fellows founded the 
Serampore College. In 1820 a college was established in Calcutta,-and others followed. 
Dr. Duff was a powerful personal factor in the growth of the sectarian colleges. 

The impelling motive of the missionaries was religious but it was powerfully 
assisted by the desire of the natives for a knowledge of English as an avenue to lucrative 
government employment. There soon developed a conflict of claims between English 
and the oriental languages. Macaulay's minute of 1835 was largely instrumental in 
deciding it in favor of the English language and the Western learning. 

The decisive step came in 1854, when Sir C. Wood, as president of the board of 
control, issued the famous dispatch outlining the scheme of education that in its main 
features still endures. The Crown reaffirmed it in 1859. Under its provisions in 
1857 the universities of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay were established, and by 
1861 the system was in general working order. The attempt to westernize India had 
begun. — W. W. Hunter, Imperial Gazetteer of India, IV, 412-13. 

1 As the Round Table Quarterly (VIII [Dec, 191 7], Pt. 1, 21) put it: "Half the 
troubles of the British in India have been caused by their failure to find a position of 
any real importance in their system for Indians equipped with a sufficiently thorough 
Western education to qualify them for the task of interpreting the mind of the West 
to the mind of the East. 



86 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

subjects. The keen analytical Brahmin mind could not be expected to 
draw conclusions of submission and quiescence beneath autocratic 
foreign rule from a study of England's struggle for constitutional liberty. 
The effects of this system were soon perceptible, but the government 
held on in the spirit of Sir Richard Temple, writing in 1882, 

Some observers may hold that if higher education tends to political dis- 
content, the government should prudently refrain from imparting it. But 
such view could not be maintained in the nineteenth century. Surely it is our 
bounden duty to give to the natives the benefit of all that we know ourselves. 
If we admit that there are cases in which plain dictates of duty must be fol- 
lowed and reliance placed on providence f of the result, then here is an example 
of the strongest kind. Politically we are so secure that we can afford to be gen- 
erous in imparting knowledge, even though in some respects disaffection were 
to spring up in consequence; but in fact true loyalty and contentment in other 
and more important respects will thereby be produced or confirmed. At all 
events this is an occasion for putting into practice the maxim "be just and 
fear not." 1 

Matters 2 stood thus when Lord Ripon came out as viceroy on the crest of 
the wave of Gladstone's Midlothian victory of 1880. He was confronted 
by the financial difficulties created by the expenses of the Afghan im- 
broglio and a famine in the Northwestern Provinces ; a native press 3 which 
had assumed a tone that had necessitated restraint; and a restlessness 
among the educated natives, which, while in no way menacing, Compelled 
consideration. The conditions were ripe for practical experiment in 
the application of the theories of liberalism. 

As Lord Ripon said himself later in his Edinburgh speech : 
There are three methods of treating the movement which we have been 
considering. We may either ignore it or we may endeavor to resist it, or we 

1 Sir R. Temple, op. cit., p. 504. 

2 R. D. Osborn, "India under Lytton," Contemporary Review, XXXVI (Sept.- 
Dec, 1879), 573. 

3 Sir R. Temple, op. cit., p. 431. The change in the spirit of the natives was not 
confined to the political field. For example, in the religious field there was the Brahma 
Samaj. In essence it was an attempt to modernize or perhaps Christianize Hinduism 
by purifying it of what the teachings of the West held to be immoral or worse. The 
movement centered in Calcutta but its adherents were scattered over the provinces. 
Its founder and leader was Ram Mohan Roy. 

Slower to gain headway but destined to greater development was the Arya Samaj 
founded by Swami Dayanand. This movement also was in its origin religious, but 
unlike the Brahma Samaj, was anti-Christian, voicing the cry of " back to the Vedahs." 
Its later developments assumed a strong political tinge. — "The Arya Samaj," Round 
Table (Sept., 1913), pp. 614-36. 



REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 87 

may recognize it and guide it. Of these methods the first is obviously the most 
foolish. The movement may be unacceptable to many persons — it may involve 
danger in the treatment of the natives of India by Europeans, official or non- 
official, and in the bearing of the natives towards them which they regard with 
dissatisfaction and dislike; but a movement such as this, springing from. such 
potent causes cannot be got rid of by the simple process of shutting one's eyes, 
and the policy of the fabled ostrich will avail Indian statesmen as little as it 

ever did that unhappy bird 

The conclusive answer to any one who would recommend an attempt to 
stop the onward march of thought and aspiration in India is that it is impossible. 
We are thus brought — -and I rejoice for my part to think it — to the last of the 
three methods of treating the problem before us. We have to deal with the 
movement resulting from our own past policy and growing in volume and in 
force every year. Our task — -the greatest task of the Indian Government 
today — -is to guide and to control this stream of progress so that, moving on with 
steady and regulated advance, it may fertilize and not destroy, may enrich 
and not uproot. 1 

Lord Ripon also quoted with approval Sir Evelyn Baring's words: 
The task of the government, and especially of a despotic government, is 
beset with difficulties of no light kind. To move too fast is dangerous; but 
to lag behind is more dangerous still. The problem is, how to deal with this 
new-born spirit of progress — poor and superficial in many respects as it is — -so 
as to direct it into a right course and to derive from it all the benefits which its 
development is capable of ultimately conferring upon the country and at the 
same time to prevent it from becoming, through blind indifference or stupid 
repression, a source of serious political danger. 2 

In addition there were • other motives contributing to determine 
Lord Ripon's policy. He himself thus explained how he came to 
inaugurate the reforms, in replying to an address of the Lahore munici- 
pality, on November 8, 1882: 

The main and primary object of the government of India in the steps 
which it is taking at the present time for the development and extension of self- 
government in this country is to advance and promote the political and popular 
education of the people and to do what may be done under the circumstances 
of these times to induce the best and most intelligent men of the community 
to come forward and take a share in the management of their own local affairs, 
and to guide and aid and train them in the attainment of that important 
object. 

We have not been led to adopt this policy at this time in consequence of 
any mere inclination of our own, but I can truly say that we have been forced 

1 Voice of India, III (Dec, 1885), vii-ix. 

2 Ibid., p. vii. 



88 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

to adopt it by the circumstances of the times with which we have to deal. We 
had last year as you are aware to make arrangements for the renewal of those 
quinquennial provincial contracts which were originally introduced in the time 
of Lord Mayo, and which formed one of the distinguishing features of that great 
policy of decentralization which will always constitute one of the greatest 
claims of that distinguished statesman upon the gratitude of India. 

Those five-year contracts were running out and we had to consider upon 
what terms they should be renewed; and when we came to turn our attention 
to that question, we thought it our duty to ask whether the time had not come 
to apply more fully and to carry out yet further the policy which Lord Mayo 
had inaugurated, for it must be borne in mind that that policy in its full inten- 
tion was not only of provincial decentralization but that Lord Mayo looked 
with the eye of a statesman to promote also the great object of self-government; 
and it seemed to us that we could not better apply the principles which he had 
laid down than by carrying decentralization beyond the stage at which — not I 
believe in accordance with his desire, but owing to circumstances which fol- 
lowed his unhappy decease — it had been arrested and to advance it from 
decentralization as between those provincial governments and the local 
bodies within their jurisdiction. 

But when we came to look at this problem and to seek for a solution of it, 
we found that it would be essential to infuse new life and vigour into these local 
bodies in which we desired to confer fuller and more extended powers. 1 

Impelled by these motives Lord Ripon's government issued through 
the Finance Department a resolution on September 30, 1881, 2 and 
October 10 addressed letters to the various provincial governments. 
On May 18 of the following year another resolution was issued, which 
has ever since been held by the educated natives in an esteem almost 
amounting to reverence. It is perhaps the most liberal enunciation of 
the policy of self-government ever made by the government of India, 

'"Local Self-Government in India," Westminster Review, CXXI (1884), 71-72. 

2 About the same time as the resolution of September 30, 1881, was issued, detailed 
information was called for with respect to the existing municipal system in India. 
The result showed that municipal committees were in existence in most of the principal 
and in a few of the smaller towns, and that in every province there was legal power 
to allow the appointment of members of these committees by election. It appeared, 
however, that there were great differences between the practice prevailing in different 
provinces in regard to the elections. In some the elective system had been largely 
introduced. In the Northwestern Provinces it was in operation in seventy- three out 
of eighty-one municipalities, and in the Central Provinces in fifty-eight out of sixty- 
two. In others it had been applied to a very limited extent. In Bengal, apart from 
Calcutta, there were only three elective municipalities. In Bombay election had 
been introduced nowhere except in the city of Bombay itself, where it had worked 
very successfully. It was difficult to discover any reason for these variations of 
practice except the varying inclinations of different governors and lieutenant 
governors. — Sir Evelyn Baring, "Recent Events in India," Nineteenth Century 
Review, XIV (1883), 581. 



REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 89 

and it is also the best and most authoritative description of the pre- 
liminaries of the self-government measures enacted by Lord Ripon and 
Lord Dufferin. 1 

5. At the outset the governor-general in council must explain that in 
advocating the extension of local self-government and the adoption of this 
principle in the management of many branches of local affairs, he does not 
suppose that the work will be in the first instance better done than if it remained 
in the sole hands of the government district officers. It is not primarily with a 
view to improvement in administration that this measure is put forward and 
supported. It is chiefly desirable as an instrument of political and popular 
education. His Excellency in council has himself no doubt that, in course of 
time as local knowledge and local interest are brought to bear more and more 
freely upon local administration, improved efficiency will in fact follow. But 
starting there will doubtless be many failures calculated to discourage exagger- 
ated hopes, and even in some cases to cast apparent discredit upon the prac- 
tice of self-government itself. If, however, the officers of government only set 
themselves, as the governor-general in council believes they will, to foster 
sedulously the small beginnings of independent political life; if they accept 
loyally and as their own the policy of the government; and if they come to 
realize that the system really opens to them a fairer field for the exercise of 
administrative tact and directive energy than the more autocratic system which 
it supersedes, then it may be hoped that the period of failures will be short and 
that real and substantial progress will very soon become manifest. 

6. It is not uncommonly asserted that the people of this country are them- 
selves entirely indifferent to the principle of self-government; that they take 
but little interest in public matters; that they prefer to have such affairs 
managed for them by government officers. The governor-general in council 
does not attach much value to the theory. It represents no doubt the point 
of view which commends itself to many active and well-intentioned district 
officers, and the people of India are, there can equally be no doubt, remarkably 
tolerant of existing facts. But as education advances there is rapidly growing 
up all over the country an intelligent class of public-spirited men, whom it 
is not only bad policy but sheer waste of power to fail to utilize. 

The task of administering is yearly becoming more and more onerous as the 
country progresses in civilization and material prosperity. The annual reports 
of every government tell of an ever increasing burden laid upon the shoulders of 
local officers. The cry is everywhere for increased establishments. The uni- 
versal complaint in all departments is that of overwork. Under the circum- 
stances it becomes imperatively necessary to look around for some means of 
relief, and the governor-general in council has no hesitation in stating his 
conviction that the only reasonable plan to the government is to induce the 

1 It is published in full in P. Mukherji, Indian Constitutional Documents, 1773- 
1915, pp. 408-20. 



90 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

people themselves to undertake as far as may be the management of their own 
affairs, and to develop or create if need be a capacity for self-help in respect of 
all matters that have not for imperial reasons to be retained in the hands of 
the representatives of government. 

7. If it be said that the experiments hitherto made in this direction have 
not been encouraging, the governor- general in council must avow his belief 
that the principle has not yet been in any general or satisfactory fashion fully 
and fairly tried. There is reason to fear that previous attempts at local 
self-government have been too often overridden and practically crushed by 
direct though well meant official interference. In the few cases where real 
responsibility has been thrown upon local bodies and real power intrusted to 
them, the results have been very gratifying. There is even now a vast 
amount of assistance rendered to the administration by honorary magis- 
trates, members of municipal corporations and other committees, and there 
is no antecedent improbability in the theory that if non-official auxiliary 
agency were more thoroughly organized and more fully trusted, there would 
be a speedy and marked improvement not only in its amount but in its 
efficiency. 

8. Holding therefore that it is the duty and interest of the ruling power to 
take care that the further advance which it is now proposed to make in the 
direction of local self-government shall be though cautious yet at the same 
time real and substantial, the governor-general in council will proceed to 
indicate for the guidance of the provincial administrations, the general prin- 
ciples upon which, in the judgment of the government of India these measures 
should be shaped. The subject may for the purposes of the resolution be 
divided into two parts — the first, relating to the mode in which local boards, 
whether municipal or district, should generally be constituted; and the second, 
to the degree of control which the government should retain over such bodies, 
and the manner in which that control should be exercised. 

9. In regard to the first of these points, the governor-general in council 
would observe that he is quite aware of the absurdity of attempting to lay 
down any hard and fast rules which shall be of universal application in a 
country so vast and in its local circumstances so varied as British India. It 
would be unreasonable to expect that any uniform system of local government 
could be applied with equal success in provinces differing as the Punjab, for 
instance, from Madras or Bengal from Burma. A large latitude of applica- 
tion must therefore in every case be left to the local authorities. Indeed we 
are really as yet so much in the infancy of self-government, and have, perhaps, 
so little knowledge of the directions in which it would naturally develop itself 
among the people, that there is a distinct advantage in having different schemes 
tried in different places in order to test by practical experience what arrange- 
ments are best suited to the ways of thinking, habits, and other idiosyncrasies 
of the heterogeneous populations of the empire. But there are neverthe- 
less fundamental principles which after every allowance has been made for 



REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 91 

local peculiarities must be universally followed and frankly adopted if the 
system is to have anywhere a fair trial. 

10. The government of India desires, then, that while maintaining and 
extending as far as practicable, the plan of municipal government in the cities 
and towns of each province, the local governments will also maintain and extend 
throughout the country in every district where intelligent non-official agency 
can be found, a network of local boards, to be charged with definite duties 
and intrusted with definite funds. The governor-general in council considers 
it very important that the area of jurisdiction allotted to each board should in 
no case be too large. If the plan is to succeed at all, it will be necessary to 
secure among the members both local interest and local knowledge. Experi- 
ence proves that district committees are as a rule very badly attended by mem- 
bers not actually residing in the vicinity of the headquarters station. Those 
who do attend have frequently no intimate acquaintance with the wants of 
outlying parts of the district. The consequence is either that undue attention 
is given to the requirements of the immediate neighborhood of the central 
station or that the business falls entirely into the hands of the district officer, 
the committee contenting itself by formally indorsing his proposals. Modifying 
therefore to some extent the suggestions made in paragraph 8 of the circular 
letters of the tenth of October last, the governor-general in council desires 
that the smallest administrative unit — 'the subdivision, the taluka or the 
tahsil — shall ordinarily form the maximum area to be placed under a local 
board. He would not indeed object to even smaller jurisdictions, were these 
deemed suitable. In some provinces it may be found possible to leave these 
subdivisional boards to their own independent working, arranging for a periodi- 
cal district council to which delegates from each local board might be sent to 
settle such common matters as the rate of the land cess to be levied during the 
year, allotment to be made of district funds, and other questions of general 
interest. In other provinces again it may be thought best to have a district 
board with controlling power over the smaller local boards. But, whatever 
system is followed, the cardinal principle which is essential to the success of 
local self-government in any shape is this, that the jurisdiction of the primary 
boards must be so limited in area as to insure both local knowledge and local 
interest on the part of each of the members. 

11. The municipal committees will of course remain the local boards for 
areas included within town limits. The relations between such municipal 
boards and the subdivisional or district boards within whose jurisdiction 
the towns lie must be carefully settled in each case. In some instances the 
town boards will be left entirely independent and apart. In others it may be 
found desirable to give the rural boards a certain share in the settlement of 
questions of common interest. In others again,, the town boards would be 
required to send delegates to the district board or council. 

12. The local boards, both urban and rural, must everywhere have a large 
preponderance of non-official members. In no case ought the official members 



92 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

to be more than one- third of the whole, unless in places in which the elective 
system is followed, when there would be no ground for objecting to an elected 
member merely on the ground that he was in the service of the government. 
The governor-general in council is disposed to think that the non-official mem- 
bers of the boards should hold office for at least two years after election or 
appointment; but probably the best plan to follow would be that of the com- 
pulsory retirement by rotation of a fixed proportion of members, those retiring 
being eligible to sit again. A detail of this description may, however, fittingly 
be left to the local government. 

13. Members of the boards should be chosen by election wherever it may, 
in the opinion of the local governments, be practicable to adopt that system 
of choice. The governor-general in council does not require the adoption of 
the system of election in all cases, though that is the system which he hopes 
will ultimately prevail throughout the country, and which he wishes to estab- 
lish now as widely as local circumstances will permit. Election in some form 
or other should be generally introduced in towns of any considerable size, 
but may be extended more cautiously and gradually to the smaller municipali- 
ties and to backward rural tracts 

17. Turning now to the second division of the subject — -the degree of 
control to be retained by the government over the local boards and the manner 
in which that control should be exercised — -the governor-general in council 
observes that the true principle to be followed in this matter is that the control 
should be exercised from without rather than from within. The government 
should revise and check the acts of the local bodies but not dictate them. 
The executive authorities should have two powers of control. In the first 
place their sanction should be required in order to give validity to certain 
acts such as the raising of loans, the imposition of taxes in other than duly 
authorized forms, the alienation of municipal property, interference with any 
matters involving religious questions or affecting the public peace, and the 
like. [The cases in which such sanction should be insisted upon would have to 
be carefully considered by each government and they would at the outset be 
probably somewhat numerous, but as the boards gained in experience, might 
be reduced in number.] In the second place, the local government should 
have the power to interfere either to set aside altogether the proceedings of 
the board in particular cases, or in the event of gross and continued neglect 
of any important duty, to suspend the board temporarily, by the appointment 
of persons to execute the office of the board until the neglected duty had been 
satisfactorily performed. That being done, the regular system would be 
re-established, fresh boards being elected or appointed. This power of abso- 
lute supersession would require in every case the consent of the supreme 
government. A similar power is reserved to the executive government under 
several English statutes, and, if required in England where local self-government 
is long established and effective, it is not probable that it could be altogether 
dispensed with in India. It should be the general function of the executive 



REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 93 

officers of the government to watch, especially at the outset, the proceedings 
of the local boards, to point out to them matters calling for their consideration, 
to draw their attention to any neglect of duty on their part, and to check by 
official remonstrance any attempt to exceed their proper functions or to act 
illegally or in an arbitrary or unreasonable manner. 

18. It does not appear necessary for the exercise of these powers that the 
chief executive officers of towns, subdivisions, or districts should be chairmen 
or even members of the local boards. There is indeed much reason to believe 
that it would be more convenient that they should supervise and control 
the acts of these bodies without taking actual part in their proceedings. The 
governor-general in council is aware that many high authorities hold that the 
district officer should always be ex officio chairman of all the local boards within 
the district, and should directly guide and regulate their proceedings. This 
was indeed the view taken by the government of India itself in the circular 
letters of the tenth of October last, so far as the constitution of district boards 
was concerned. But even then the governor-general in council did not see his 
way to accepting the principle in the case of municipal boards; and further 
consideration has led him to the belief that on the whole it is better to lay 
down no such general rule in the case of any class of local boards. There 
appears to him to be great force in the argument that so long as the chief 
executive officers are as a matter of course chairmen of the municipal and 
district committees, there is little chance of affording any effective training 
to their members in the management of local affairs, or of the non-official 
members taking any real interest in local business. The non-official must 
be led to feel that real power is placed in their hands, and that they have real 
responsibilities to discharge. It is doubtful whether they have under present 
arrangements any sufficient inducement to give up their time and attention 
to the transaction of public business. There is this further objection to the 
district officer acting as chairman, that if the non-official members are inde- 
pendent and energetic, risk may arise of unseemly collision between the 
chairman and the board. The former would be in a far more dignified 
and influential position if he supervised and controlled the proceedings of 
the board from outside, acting as arbiter between all parties, and not leader 
of any. 

19. The governor-general in council therefore would wish to see non- 
official persons acting as chairmen of the local boards. There may, however, 
be places where it would be impossible to get any suitable non-official chair- 
man and there may be districts where the chief executive officer must for the 
present retain these duties in his own hands. But His Excellency in council 
trusts that the local governments will have recourse sparingly to the appoint- 
ment of executive officers as chairmen of local boards, and he is of the opinion 
that it should be a general rule that when such an officer is chairman of any 
local board, he shall not in that capacity have a vote in its proceedings. This 
arrangement will to some extent tend to strengthen the independence of the 



94 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

non-official members, and keep the official chairman, where there must be one, 
apart from the possible contentions of opposing parties. 

The appointment of chairmen should always be subject to the approval 
of the local government but need not be always made by it. The governor- 
general in council would be glad to see the boards allowed in as many cases 
as possible, to elect each its own chairman. But this matter is one which must 
be left to the discretion of local governments. 

The reception accorded the resolution of Lord Ripon's government 
was varied. 1 The governments of Bengal 2 and the Northwestern Prov- 
inces at once issued circulars in compliance with it. Madras referred 
it to a committee which brought in a favorable report. In the Punjab 
the new lieutenant governor, Sir C. Aitcheson, adopted the original 
program at once. 

In Bombay some friction developed. 3 It was not to be expected 
that a. great measure like Lord Ripon's scheme for the extension of local 
self-government would be received with unqualified approval by all 
the different local administrations. The Bombay governor was a 
Conservative, and his government, in particular, received the proposals 
of the Viceroy with ill-disguised aversion, and in recalling the fact that 
the urban and rural population of the Bombay presidency had for many 
years past enjoyed a large share of local self-government under acts of 
1869 and 1873, and had made thereby large advances in civilization, 
attributed to the supreme government an intention to subvert this 
system and confer unlimited powers upon the local bodies. Lord Ripon's 
government, however, refuted the objections of the Bombay authorities, 
mainly on the testimony of Bombay officers, and the Bombay govern- 
ment was persuaded to support it. 

Anglo-Indian sentiment at large was apathetic or contemptuous 
toward the reforms. As A. P. Sinnett, writing in the Fortnightly Review 
in 1883, said: 

Most Englishmen in India have but too much reason to distrust the 
efficiency of native zeal when practical business has to be done; and the 

1 Annual Register (1882), p. 320. 

2 Mr. Rivers Thompson, the conservative lieutenant governor of Bengal, said 
in a speech made in the Bengal Legislative Council: 

It is a measure which the Viceroy is very anxious to see established throughout 
the country, and which, speaking personally for myself, I am strongly anxious 
to support as fully as I can. I think, after a rule of a hundred years in India, it would 
rather be a disgrace to us than otherwise if we should give to the people of this country 
a much larger share in the administration of their local affairs. — J. Goldsmid, "Ques- 
tions of the Day in India," Nineteenth Century Review, XIII (1883), 746. 

3 "India and Our Colonial Empire," Westminster Review, CXIX (1883), 299-300. 



REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 95 

subordinate official class, the district officers and their assistants as a body may 
not unnaturally have apprehended that any serious attempt to pass over any 
of their duties to amateur native committees would certainly end in adminis- 
trative disorder and retrogression, the blame of which would be apt to recoil 
on them. 

At the same time, though coldly received for these reasons, the new policy 
was not generally resisted in principle. Differences of opinion in connection 
with it related to the practicability or expediency of particular measures 
aimed at giving it effect; its general propriety was not contested, and the 
state papers which its promulgation evoked hardly include a single important 
document [except possibly Bombay] that is altogether opposed to the recom- 
mendations of the supreme government. 1 

The same feeling was expressed in the Nineteenth Century Review, 
in these words: 

With regard to the question of local self-government which is closely 
connected with that of the employment of natives, no one can doubt that if 
native committees can be got to undertake particular branches of local adminis- 
tration, and to manage them efficiently, it will be a great advantage to all 
persons concerned. 

Many experiments have been made in this direction, and it is certainly 
desirable that they should continue to be made. From what I have heard 
from specially well informed persons as to the management of such affairs 
in the cities of Calcutta and Madras, and in some other towns which have 
municipal committees, I am sceptical as to their efficiency. 2 

Sir Evelyn Baring, the late Earl Cromer, expressed the following 
opinion of the reforms: 

If we had wished to look wholly to the administrative, to the neglect of 
the political aspect of government in India, we should never have let loose the 
journalist and the schoolmaster in the country. Lord Halifax's educational 
dispatch of 1854 especially should never have been written. Having for the 
last twenty-five years at least turned on steam at high pressure, it would not 
now be wise to sit on the safety-valve. It will surely be wiser to be content 
with a relatively slow rate of progress and to carry the natives with us rather 
than to force on the works of local administration without their co-operation. 
The former certainly appears to me to be by far the most wisely conservative 
policy of the two. Local boards and committees may, in the words of the 

1 A. P. Sinnett, "Anglo-Indian Complications and Their Cause," Fortnightly 
Review, XL (July-Dec, 1883), N.S. 34, pp. 408-9. 

2 J. E. Stephen, "Foundations of the Government of India," Nineteenth Century 
Review, XIV (1883), 560. 



96 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

resolution of May 18, 1882, be very properly and wisely used as instruments 
of political and popular education. 1 

The profoundest shock to the administrative system given by the 
local self-government reforms was the blow given the district officer. 
For years the work of actual administration had fallen upon his shoulders, 
and it was felt that to a very great degree a blow at his functions was a 
stroke at the roots of English dominion in India. 

How Lord Ripon 2 himself viewed the position of the district officer 
may be gathered from a passage in his Lahore addresses : 

I believe that there cannot be a greater error than that of those who suppose 
that, by this system, the just and legitimate influence of district officers will be 
diminished. I hold, on the contrary, that it will be found that that influence 
will be increased. No doubt such a system as this will make a call upon the 
somewhat different qualities from those which have been brought forward 
under the present system of more direct administration. I should say that, 
for the future, we shall require rather the qualities of the statesman than the 
qualities of the administrator, and, for my part, I think that the qualities of 
the statesman are the higher qualities of the two; and though it may be true 
that the qualities of statesmanship called forth by a policy of this description 
differ somewhat from those which have been exhibited in the past, yet I for 
one cannot doubt that in the guidance, the training and the leading of a great 
and intelligent population in times of peace, there are not just as high qualities 
required as those which are brought to light in days of war and of diplomacy. 

Mr. Barkley, speaking in the Legislative Council on the same 
question, added this view:- 

It should not be supposed that the organization of the new local bodies 
provided for by this Bill will give any immediate relief to the district officers 
or their establishments. The working of these bodies will for years to come 
demand constant vigilance and attention from the district officer whose duty 
it will be to assist them to an intelligent discharge of their duties, and to give 
such explanation as may be necessary to enable them to understand the extent 
and limits of their powers; and at the same time guard against abuses or 
neglect of duty on their part. 3 

Lord Ripon was not, however, without his supporters. Mr. Gibbs, 
speaking on the Central Provinces bill said: 

My opinion of the necessity for local self-government is not an opinion 
recently formed or merely formed on the question being brought forward by 

1 Sir Evelyn Baring, "Recent Events in India, " Nineteenth Century Review, 
XIV (1883), 584- 

2 "Local Self-Government in India," Westminster Review, CXXI (1884), 81-82. 

3 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 440. 



REFORMS OF LORD RIPON, 1881-85 97 

Your Lordship. I have long seen that such a necessity must arise, and that 
it was merely the natural outcome of that system of education which has been 
going on under the auspices of the British government for between forty and 
fifty years. I have for many years watched the progress made by the natives 
of this country to render themselves capable of taking part in the government 
and done my best to hasten on that end whenever I had the opportunity, 
especially by trying, and sometimes with success, to increase the power and 
independence in municipalities and other local bodies in Western India. 

.... I am sure that no true friend of the natives of this country can hold 
any other opinion than that it would be for the good of the empire when the 
people of the country become fitted to take a more direct part in its govern- 
ment. This has to a certain extent been going on for many years, by the 
employment of many natives, some in important, but the majority in sub- 
ordinate,- official positions under the government; but the present movement 
is of much greater importance than anything that has yet been attempted, 
for it will enable the independent gentry of the country not merely to join 
the government in carrying on the administration of the empire, but in their 
own individual capacity to step in and relieve the ordinary government of 
much of its work. 1 

Mr. Hunter expressed this view: 

I am one of those who believe that, both as a matter of expediency and of 
justice, the natives must be admitted not only to wider employment in the 
administrative offices, but also to some share in the government of their 
country. I do not consider it either safe for England, or fair to India, that a 
people from whom fifty-eight millions of revenue were last year raised, should 
have no voice in the political direction of their affairs. I look forward to the 
time when the Indian Legislature will be, to some extent at any rate, elected 
by the people — to a time when there will be an Indian representative body, 
whether under the title of a privy council for India, or by whatever name it 
may be called, which shall assist the viceroy in the task of administration, as 
his legislative council now assists him in the task of law-making. 

But such a council is possible only if Great Britain makes up her mind 
to deal honestly with the Indian people. . .- . . 

The moment that a representative council is created in India, this feeling 
of soreness and irritation on the part of the natives with regard to the Indian 
finances will find a voice. England, therefore, can grant representative insti- 
tutions to India only if England is determined to deal honestly with India. 2 

Speaking to the Imperial Legislative Council he added the following : 

We have lately heard much of the great influence exercised by the small 
but highly educated native communities in the towns. It is complained that 

1 Ibid. .(Jan. 12, 1883), pp. 27-28. 

2 W. W. Hunter, "What the English Have Done for the Indian People," Comhill 
Magazine, XLI (1880), 162-63. 



98 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

influence is altogether disproportionate to the number of the persons who 
wield it or to the pecuniary stake which they have in the country. Without 
pronouncing as to the justice of this view, I think that the present measure 
affords a new and valuable guaranty against the evil complained of. For 
this bill creates effective mouthpieces for public opinion outside the great 
towns, such as the rural population never possessed before. 1 

Opinions in England were noncommittal. There were numerous 
articles dealing with the provisions of the proposals. What few 
opinions they expressed were but repetitions of those voiced in India. 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(Sept. 12, 1883), 542. 



CHAPTER VII 
RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 

Divisions of the plan of Lord Ripon 

The development of existing municipalities 
The creation of rural bodies 
Continuation of Lord Ripon's policy by Lord Dufferin 
The municipal acts 

Summary of the extent of municipal development prior to Lord Ripon's 

reforms 
The Northwestern Provinces and Oudh Municipal Act, 1883 
The Madras Municipal Act, 1884 
The Punjab Municipal Act, 1884 

Features of its working 
The Bengal Municipal Act, 1884 
The Burma Municipal Act, 1884 
The local self-government acts for rural areas 
Previous practices 

Local funds committees 

Specimen— the Madras Local Funds Act of 1871 
Ihe working of these acts 
The Central Provinces Local Self-Government Act, 1883 
History of the act 

Peculiarities of the Central Provinces 
Reasons for placing officials on the boards 
Need of native help as a reason for the reform 
Utilization made of existing organizations 
The village 
The school committee 
Extent of the application of the act 
The act itself 
The Northwestern Provinces and Oudh Act of 1883 
The preliminaries of the act 
The reasons and purposes of the act 
The act 
The Punjab Act of 1883 

The reasons and purposes of the act 
Precursors of the Punjab act 

Ferry and road committees 
The act 

99 



ioo THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The Bombay Act of 1884 

Previous bodies — -local funds committees 
The act 

The Madras Act of 1884 

The Bengal Act of 1885 
Summary of the plan for local self-government 
Reasons for the retention of official chairmen 
Reasons for the non-extension of the elective principle 
Reasons for the control provisions 
Native opinion of the control provisions 
Native adulation of Ripon 

English skepticism of the feasibility of self-government 
The Burma Village Act of 1899 

The plan as finally elaborated by Lord Ripon comprised two distinct 
aspects. The one was a development of the popular element in the already 
existing municipalities, which had already made considerable progress 
in that respect. The other was the development of popular control 
in the rural areas. 

Many of the laws, however, for the execution of the scheme were 
not enacted until the viceroyalty of Lord Dufferin, 1884-88. It made 
no perceptible difference. Dufferin, addressing the Corporation of 
Calcutta on December 13, 1884, said: 

If there is one principle more inherent than another in the system of our 

Indian administration it is that of continuity The Marquis of Ripon 

and his predecessors have prepared the soil, delved, and planted. It will be 
my humble duty to watch, water, prune and train, but it may not be out of 
place for me to remind you that the further development of the principle of 
self-government rests very much in your own hands. 1 

The various acts which carried the resolution of 1882 finally into at 
least nominal effect in the municipalities and local areas of British 
India extended over the three following years. There was no attempt 
at any ordered program. Each province was dealt with as its local 
government completed formulating its opinions and plans. 

It seems that greater clearness will be secured by disregarding the 
chronological order to the extent of treating the municipal and rural 
acts as separate groups. 

The first of the municipal acts passed in response to the stimulus 
given by Lord Ripon was for the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh. 
In introducing it Mr. Quinton said: 

The resolution of the government of the Northwestern Provinces and 
Oudh .... proposes an extension of local self-government in municipalities 

1 Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, Speeches in India, p. 26. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS ioi 

incompatible with the provisions of the present law, and this Bill has been 
drawn up to give effect to these proposals by substituting for the act of 1873 
an enactment which will bestow upon the residents of areas in which it is in 
force a much larger measure of control over municipal administration than 
they now possess. 

The provisions of the Bill are the result of ... . consultative and delibera- 
tive measures on the part of the local government [the same as for the Local 
Boards Bill]. They are based on the inquiries of district and divisional officers, 
considered and weighed by the provincial committee, whose conclusions have 
been accepted with certain modifications by the local government. 1 

The following are the most significant provisions of the law: 2 
Section 6. There shall be established for each municipality a municipal 
board having authority over that municipality and consisting of: (a) so many 
elected members as may be determined in manner prescribed, representing 
wards of the municipality or particular classes of the inhabitants ; and (b) such 
person or persons [if any] not exceeding in number one-fourth of the board, 
as the local government may, subject to the rules made under Section 64, from 
time to time appoint in this behalf. 

Sec. 18. A municipal board shall from time to time, at a special meet- 
ing, elect as the chairman one of its own members or some other person 
qualified for election as a member, and the member or other person so elected 
shall, if the election is approved by the local government, but not other- 
wise, become chairman of the board. 

b) In such municipalities as the local government may from time to time, 
by notification in the official gazette, exempt from the operation of this section, 
the local government may, from time to time, appoint such person as it thinks 
fit, by name or by virtue of his office to be chairman. 

The powers and duties of the municipalities were extended with consider- 
able detail to the 

Section 49. Maintenance of police establishment. 

Sec. 54. Conservancy and general improvement. 

Sec. 55. Power to make and enforce rules. 

The unique feature of the Northwestern Provinces Municipal Act 
was the provision it made for consulting the inhabitants before deciding 
on its details. The section is well worth quoting in full: 

Section 7. (1) The magistrate of the district within which any munici- 
pality is situated shall within one month from the date on which this Act has 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(May 14, 1883), 14. 

2 The act in full is published in Collection of the Acts Passed by the Governor-General 
of India in Council in 1883, Act XV. Calcutta, 1884. 



102 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

been applied to the municipality under Section 4 or Section 5 issue notices 
in writing to the persons mentioned in Section 8, inviting them to meet at a 
time and place specified in the notices for the purpose of preparing and sub- 
mitting within such further time not exceeding three months from the date 
of the meeting as the local governments may fix in this behalf proposals for 
determining the system of representation and election to be established in 
the municipality. 

Section 8 provided that notices should be issued to: 

(a) all honorary magistrates having jurisdiction within the limits of the mu- 
nicipality, (b) members of existing municipal committees and panchayats, 
(c) members of panchayats, (d) any leading resident of the municipality 
.... who in the opinion of the magistrate of the district should be allowed 
to take part in the discussion. 

The control provisions authorized the local government to remove 
any chairman or vice-chairman who could not or would not act or 
become insolvent or was convicted of an offense indicating a defect of 
character unfitting him for the position. The commissioner was 
empowered to enter and inspect the property or operations of the com- 
mittee and call for such reports and papers as he might think fit. In 
case of need the local government might suspend or supersede any 
delinquent board or committee and provide for the performance of its 
functions, and the commissioner or magistrate might veto any resolu- 
tion or order likely to lead to any serious breach of the peace. 

The Madras Municipal Act 1 of 1884 consisted of two hundred and 
eighty-nine sections. The preamble of the law made no reference to 
self-government, merely reciting: 

Whereas, It is expedient to make better provision for the organization 
and administration of district municipalities in the presidency of Fort St. 
George, for the conservancy and improvement thereof, for the diffusion of 
education therein, and for other objects of public utility calculated to promote 
the health, comfort, and convenience of the inhabitants of the said municipali- 
ties; it is hereby enacted as follows. 

The scheme provided by the act created for each municipality a coun- 
cil composed of from twelve to twenty-four members. The divisional 
revenue officer was to be an ex officio member. The rest were to be 
partly elected and partly appointed. Certain qualifications were 
required of the councilors. They were required to be males over twenty- 
five years old, and non-official residents of the municipality. It was also 

1 The law is published in full in the Madras Code, 4th ed., II, 1915. Act IV 
of 1884. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 103 

specified that they must not be criminals and have no business interests 
in companies contracting with the municipality. The officials could be 
appointed up to one-fourth of the number of the council. The governor 
in council was empowered in each specific case to fix the size of the 
council and details of its organization. 

The act authorized the following taxes: (1) yearly tax on arts, 
professions, trades and callings, and on offices and appointments; (2) 
yearly tax on buildings or lands; (3) yearly water and drainage tax on 
buildings; (4) half-yearly tax on vehicles with springs; (5) half-yearly 
tax on vehicles without springs; (6) tolls on vehicles and animals 
entering the municipal limits; (7) monthly tax on servants. 

Taxes were to be used for: (1) the construction, repair, and main- 
tenance of streets, bridges, and other means of communication; (2) 
the construction and maintenance of hospitals, dispensaries, lunatic 
asylums, poorhouses, markets, drains, sewers, latrines, waterworks, 
tanks, wells, recreation grounds, gardens, parks, the support of doctors 
and vaccinators, the sanitary inspection of towns and villages, the 
registration of births and deaths, the watering and lighting of streets, 
the cleansing of streets, tanks, wells, drains, sewers, and latrines, taking 
census; (3) planting and preservation of trees; (4) the diffusion of 
education, construction and maintenance of schools; (5) measures for 
health, safety or comfort of the people; (6) payments on loans; (7) 
salaries; (8) expenses provided for by act. 

The control features of the act were practically identical with those 
of the other laws of the series. The governor in council was authorized 
to modify the orders of the Council or dissolve or suspend it in case of 
need. The same power could also remove any chairman for failure to 
perform the duties of his office. The collector of the district was given 
extensive supervising powers, having the right to inspect all the ac- 
tivities of the Council and call for such reports as he wished. In case 
of emergency he might also perform the necessary acts himself. 

The Bengal District Municipalities Act II of 1884 1 presented the 
unique feature of going into considerable more detail as to election than 
the Madras act. 

The size of the municipal councils was fixed within the limits of 
nine and thirty. At least two-thirds were to be elected by male residents 
over the age of twenty-one, who had paid their three rupee-tax or held a 
university or medical degree. With certain specified exceptions the 
chairmen of the councils were to be elected. 

'The law is published in full in the Bengal Code, 4th ed., II, 718 et seq. Act II 
of 1884. 



104 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

These radical provisions were safeguarded by control features very 
similar to those of the other acts. The commissioner might suspend 
the order of any council if he thought it likely to cause serious trouble. 
He was obliged, however, to report such cases to the local government. 
The local government in turn had the power to suspend or supersede 
any incompetent or recalcitrant council. 

For Bombay also a new act was passed, Act II of 1884. r The peculiar 
feature of this act was the provision for municipal districts. Munici- 
palities were divided into two classes. One included the cities, towns, 
and their suburbs. The other included villages and their suburbs or 
two or more of them grouped into a municipal district. The municipal 
commissioners were to be in part appointed by the government but at 
least one-half were to be elected. The commissioners were required 
to be males over twenty-one years of age without criminal records and 
without interest in any municipal contracts. Municipal servants, 
judges, and bankrupts were also barred. The president was, however, 
to be a government appointee. The powers given the municipalities 
were practically identical with those given in the other provinces. The 
control features were also the same. 

In the Punjab 2 the act of 1873 had been so broadly framed that it 
would have been possible to give effect to the proposals for the extension 
of local self-government in the municipalities of the Punjab, which the 
local government had enunciated in its resolution (No. 1777) dated 
September 7, 1882, by merely altering the rules made by the local 
government. 

It was, however, deemed best to pass a new act in order as far as 
possible to incorporate into one act all the provisions relating to the 
municipalities. 3 The resulting law approximated the elaborate measures 
of the presidencies. 

Among the new and distinctive features of the act were the pro- 
visions giving the local government power to frame rules for the election 
of such proportion of members as it might see fit; the requirement that 
at least two- thirds of the membership of the committees be non-officials ; 
and according the committee the privilege of electing its own president 
although subject to the approval of the local government. Unusually 

1 The law is published in full in the Bombay Acts, 1880-1888. Act II of 1884. 

2 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 526. 

s This law is published in full in the Acts of the Governor -General of India in Council. 
Act XIII of 1884. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 105 

specific provision was also made for education and relief works. The 
control provisions presented no peculiar features. 

For Burma also a new municipal act was passed through the Legisla- 
tive Council of the viceroy. 1 Its most radical provision was to require 
the adoption of the elective system except in places where the chief 
commissioners should be of the opinion that no suitable system of election 
could be devised. It provided for the election of at least three-quarters 
of the Municipal Board, and its chairman. 

It was the only measure enacted for Burma. Mr. Ilbert gave the fol- 
lowing reasons for this action: 

In the first place we have confined the scope of the measure to municipali- 
ties proper. The original Bill contained a provision inserted on the advice of 
the chief commissioner, Mr. Bernard, and of Mr. Crosthwaite when officiating 
in his place, which enabled the local government to include within the limits 
of a municipality not merely a town, but also any tract of country adjoining a 
town. The object of this provision was to meet the requirements of certain 
rural tracts until such time as it might be found possible to establish a system 
of local boards for rural districts. 

But it appears from the papers which have been submitted to us that on 
fuller consideration the weight of opinion is against the attempt to include in 
one municipality urban and rural tracts and that the difficulty of framing pro- 
visions suitable to town and to country is greater than had been anticipated. 
Accordingly we have both adopted Mr. Bernard's recommendation that the 
Bill be confined like other municipal acts to urban tracts, the matter of local 
government in rural tracts being left to be dealt with hereafter. 2 

Besides the municipal boards, there had also been instituted in most 
parts of the older provinces "District Committees" 3 to which has been 
intrusted the control of the funds levied under various local laws for 
the maintenance of communications and other local objects. In forty 
districts of Bengal, committees of this class administered funds aggre- 
gating £345,000 for the upkeep of roads and communications. Other 
committees regulated the distribution of educational funds supplied 
by government and controlled the charitable dispensaries scattered 
over the province. Similar arrangements existed in Assam, which 
followed in such matters the Bengal model. In Bombay (1869) 
and Madras (1871) the local funds laws provided for the constitution 

1 This act is published in full in A cts of the Legislative Council of the Governor- 
General of India. Act XVII, 1884. 

2 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXIII 
(1884), 255. 

3 "Local Self-Government in India," Westminster Review, CXXI (1884), 68. 



106 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

of district and subordinate boards to administer the funds raised under 
those enactments for communications and educational purposes. In 
Madras the revenue of these boards was in 1881-82 over one-half 
million sterling, of which four-fifths came from rates and taxes. The 
district road and educational funds in Bombay aggregated about 
£380,000. The Northwestern Provinces and the Punjab had also 
district committees administering funds. 

Before going on to give the main features of the scheme, it will be 
well to briefly indicate what it superseded. The old scheme was not 
founded on legislative enactment, but on executive orders. 1 Nothing 
more was required to regulate the procedure of government officers. 
This fact is significant as showing that the old system was emphatically 
a government system. The deputy commissioner was directed to con- 
vene a committee, consisting of the other government officers of the 
district and a few native gentlemen, and to consult with them about 
the administration of local funds. He was present at all meetings as 
chairman, and he either did all the work himself or by his subordinates, 
or exercised control and guidance at every step. The committees were 
there only to advise him. If the native gentlemen selected were men of 
some ability and frankness, they might be of service to him in representing 
local wants and in preventing any grave and unnecessary violation of 
popular prejudice. But against the hope of even this amount of assistance 
was to be placed the fact that advice is not always agreeable and that men 
do not care to place themselves in a disagreeable attitude in relation to 
the authority to whose nomination they owe their position, and by whose 
favor they continue to hold it. To this cause was undoubtedly due the 
general unobtrusiveness and apathy of the native members of the old 
Local Fund Committee, to which they owed their uncomplimentary 
nickname of Jo hukm, "Whatever is ordered." For this apathy they 
were not really to blame; it was the necessary result of the system. 

The old system also failed in that the members in no way represented 
the district. The Committee met generally at headquarters. The 
members nominated were therefore residents in the headquarters town 
or its immediate vicinity; an outsider could not be expected to attend. 
Thus, these gentlemen not only represented no electoral constituency, 
they did not even represent the interests of the district generally. They 
represented little or nothing more than the headquarters town, which 
was already fully represented in the Municipal Committee. It must 

1 A. H. L. Fraser, "Local Self-Government in the Central Provinces of India," 
Fortnightly Review, XLV (Jan.- June, 1886), 241-42. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 107 

be admitted that this accounts for the large amount of district funds 
formerly spent on municipal matters. And in any case the result was 
that a fairly good deputy commissioner, who was in the habit of travel- 
ling about his district and meeting the people frankly, knew far more 
about their wants than the native members of his committee. The 
Committee was therefore of very little practicable assistance to him. 
The interior of the district was as a rule neglected, as compared with the 
parts near headquarters. Only a fairly energetic deputy commissioner 
attended to it at all; and he could hardly be expected to deal efficiently 
and satisfactorily with the wants of his whole district. It was this that 
formed one of the chief practical arguments in favor of the new scheme. 

An example of the local funds laws is that of Madras, 1 Act IV of 
187 1. The purpose of the act was stated to be primarily the raising of 
funds for roads, secondarily for education and public convenience those 
residing outside of municipalities. The governor in council was author- 
ized to appoint for these ends in any circle a Local Fund Board consisting 
of three or more members, owners of land in or residents of the circle. 
The collector of the district was to be ex officio member and president. 
Not more than one-half the members were to be officials. The boards 
were to control and maintain from their funds streets, roads, and 
thoroughfares. All school buildings and lands previously vested in 
school committees were to come under its ownership. They were also 
to control all hospitals, dispensaries, and similar institutions with their 
equipment. To provide the necessary means, the boards were author- 
ized to levy rates on occupied land and houses, and tolls on carriages, 
carts, and animals. 

A contemporary estimate of the relations between the various 
committees, both municipal and rural, and the district officer prior to 
Lord Ripon's reforms says: 

As a matter of fact in some few districts the magistrates, especially those 
who have a real talent for administration and are something better than mere 
grinding machines, have for years past left their committees almost entirely 
to their independent working, contenting themselves with keeping an eye upon 
all that goes on, discussing frankly with them points of difference and only 
interposing effectively when interposition is seen to be necessary in publiq 
interests. 2 

The first of the measures for the rural areas enacted in pursuance of 
Lord Ripon's resolution was that for the Central Provinces. In spite 

1 Acts of the Legislative Council of the Governor of Madras, No. IV of 1871 of March 2. 

2 "Local Self-Government in India," Westminster Review, CXXI (1884), 79. 



108 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

of the repeated assertions 1 that this bill was in no way to serve as a 
hard-and-fast model for further bills, and that it was passed for the 
Central Provinces and for them alone, it was none the less in the 
main features imitated by those which followed. For this reason it is 
worth while devoting particular attention to it. Mr. Crosthwaite thus 
explained the history of the act. 

In the first place it will be observed that the Bill refers only to the Central 
Provinces, and that we have in framing it had special reference to the char- 
acter of the people of those provinces, and the present condition of the country. 
I was talking — I need not hesitate to mention it in this discreet assemblage — 
to a lady yesterday, and she asked why the government had selected the 
Central Provinces, which she considered to be a most backward place, as the 
first scene for an experiment of this advanced nature, and as perhaps other 
people may ask the same question I will explain it. Like many other things 
in this world it was rather in the shape of an accident ; it was necessary purely 
for other reasons to put the cesses which have always been levied on the land 
for local purposes in the Central Provinces on a legal basis, and for that purpose 
I was allowed by the Council in December last to introduce a small and at that 
time insignificant bill. While we were considering this bill, the government of 
India published their resolutions of May last on the extension of local self- 
government and therefore we took the opportunity of embodying such local 
measures as might be necessary for the proper working of that policy in the 
present bill. The bill therefore which we now present to the Council with 
this report differs in a very great degree from the bill formerly published. 2 

Regarding the peculiar conditions under which this act was to be 
applied, Mr. Crosthwaite said: 

It may be said that we have given too much control to the executive, and 
that we really run the risk of injuring the independence which we wish to give 
to the boards. In respect to this point I wish to be distinctly understood 
that we are dealing with the Central Provinces, one of the most backward 
provinces in India, a country in which the communications have been until 
a few years back entirely neglected, which consists of forests and mountains 
and impassable jungle. The people of the province are also in a backward 
state. Round Nagpur and Jabalpur they are as advanced probably as any 
place in India, but there are large tracts inhabited by the Khonds and other 
tribes who are entirely unfit for powers such as the bill contemplates. We have 
therefore thought it necessary to take power which in the case of the more 
advanced province might not be necessary. Then with the same object we 
have put in a section which will enable the chief commissioner to exempt from 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXI 
(1882), 447-5o- 

2 Ibid., p. 440. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 109 

the application of the bill such portions of his province as he considers unfit for 
it. I think this section in the present case is absolutely necessary. I know of 
my own knowledge that there are parts of districts — I may say whole districts — ■ 
in which it will be almost impossible to collect sufficient members for a district 
council, and in those cases I think it is better that the bill shall not be applied 
at all than that we should run the risk of having a certain failure and bringing 
discredit perhaps on the whole experiment. We have therefore given the 
chief commissioners power to exempt any portion of that province he thinks fit 
from the application of the bill and in doing that I think we have this great 
advantage, that my friend Mr. Morris is chief commissioner and I believe I am 
right in saying that he is acquainted with every district in the province, and 
that we may trust him to make such choice as experience will show to be just 

and wise We do not want these as full blown representative bodies, 

but we want them to manage in a proper and reasonable way the small local 
affairs we propose to trust to them. .... 

From what I know of the character of the gentlemen who will be on these 
boards and councils, I believe that at present and for some time to come it 
would be necessary to have a strong official element on the board or councils, 
but it does not follow that this will be always necessary or necessary in all 
cases. We have therefore thought it best not to provide for any ex officio 
members. We have provided that a certain number of each board or council 
may be nominated by the local government, and in that way it will be open to 
the local government to appoint as many official members as it chooses within 
that limit. 1 

The reasons for even attempting to introduce self-government into 
a province in which the conditions were so backward, as given by Mr. 
Plowden, seem to be predominantly those of administrative expediency. 
His words were very similar to those of the resolution of 1882. 

As our system of administration becomes more highly developed— and we 
know this has been done to a very marked extent in the last twenty years— 
we hear on all sides the complaint that our officers are overburdened with 
work. There is, I believe, a great amount of truth in this complaint, but the 
remedy for it is at our doors. We must give to the people themselves a share 
in their own administration. I do not mean merely by adding them to the 
ranks of our paid officials and making these additions from the natives of the 
country. I yield to no man advocating the employment of natives in our 
administrative and other offices. But there is a limit to the money we can 
afford to pay for administration as for other purposes. This limit has, I 
believe, been already reached. It is for unpaid assistance in our local adminis- 
tration that I look to our native fellow subjects for really useful practical aid. 

I do not think it is necessary for me to occupy your time by combating 
objections which I hear occasionally, but I am happy to say rarely, and which 

1 Ibid., pp. 441-43. 



no THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

are based on the supposed inefficiency or worse of such co-operation when we 
have secured it. We know that a well administered native state is quite as 
well administered as— I believe is really better administered, so far as popu- 
larity is' a test of good administration, than — our own best administered dis- 
tricts I believe, My Lord, that promise full of hope for the improved 

administration of this country is held out to us, if we not only really take the 
people of this country into our councils, but if we associate them with us in 
no niggardly spirit, where circumstances permit us to do so, in the administra- 
tion of their own local affairs. I am free to admit that I do not share the 
opinion of those who think such a policy properly and carefully enforced is 
full of danger to the welfare of this country. 1 

In framing the details of the law, Mr. Crosthwaite said: 

The first thing we had to settle was the constitution of the boards and 
councils. We began by recognizing the principle that the village is the unit of 
all administration in this part of India. Whether in the management of the 
revenue, the police, or education, nothing much can be done unless there is an 
organization minute and spreading enough to reach and deal with each indi- 
vidual village. Under the ancient system of the country each village managed 
its own affairs, and although there is little trace in the Central Provinces — 
which compared with the other parts of India are distinctly a new country— 
of those complicated village communities which still thrive in Northern India, 
yet the system of village management was until a comparatively recent date 
complete. Every village had its headman or patel who without any greater 
rights in the land than the other villagers acted as their guide, agent, and 
leader. By the Mahratta revenue system, under which the village community 
was jointly responsible for the whole revenue and all details of assessments were 
left to the villagers themselves, the people were forced to act together under 
their headmen and arrange their own affairs. 

During the later period of the Mahratta power and in the earlier years 
of British rule, the headman became a contractor and a farmer of the revenue. 
Still he remained a distinct power in the village, and retained somewhat of his 
official character. Under the terms of our last settlements he has in most 
cases become the owner of the land, and if it were not for the provisions of the 
Centra] Provinces Revenue Act which was passed in 1881, his position and 
duties as headman would be in danger of becoming merged and lost in his 
newer and larger character of land owner. 

The provisions of the new revenue act enable the government to select 
in every village one of the resident land owners, or if the land owners are 
absentees, some suitable resident, to be the mukaddam, as he has been called 
in this- act, or headman of the village: and this mukaddam both in the manner 
of his appointment and in the duties required of him represents the patel of 
forty or fifty years ago as nearly as the change in the relations of the villagers 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXI, 
(1882), 445. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS ill 

caused by the creation of a proprietary right in the soil will permit. Believing 
that the scheme of self-government will have much greater vitality if it can be 
founded on some indigenous institution which the people can understand, and 
are accustomed to, we decided on taking the village and the mukaddam or 
headman as the basis of our scheme and building up from this foundation. 1 

The fashion in which advantage was planned to be taken of local 
condition is also illustrated by the following remarks of Mr. Crosthwaite : 

I apprehend that the Council and the boards will work very much through 
committees. To attain success this appears to be the best plan. There will 
be a financial committee, and engineering committee, and a committee for 
education. 

We have found in the Central Provinces a system of this kind already in 
force for the management of schools, and at the request of my friend, Mr. 
Colin Browning, the very able director of education in the Central Provinces, 
who in a quiet, unostentatious manner, has done very signal service to the 
cause of education in that part of India, we have recognized the existing 
school committees and given them a place in the Bill [Sec. 16]. As the history 
of these committees shows what has been done and suggests what can be done 
by working through the people themselves [he quotes Mr. Browning], 

; 'Every Government School, of whatever kind, whether middle class or 
primary, has a school committee. Each school committee consists of not less 
than four members. They are usually nominated by the deputy commissioner. 
The school committee members are asked to visit their school once a month 
collectively and one individual member chosen by rotation visits, or should 
visit, the school weekly. The school committee members sometimes examine 
the boys: but the members are often illiterate and unable to examine the 
scholars. Still they see those that are present, inquire regarding absent boys, 
settle matters of discipline and arrange within certain limits what rates of 
fees scholars shall pay and what boys shall be free scholars. The school 
committees are especially useful in providing suitable accommodation for 
their schools and in repairing school houses. Several schools have adopted a 
certain uniform. This uniform the school committees give to the poorer 
boys at their own expense. School committees are indispensable for the 
proper conduct of schools. They not only represent our wishes to the people, 
but the wishes of the people to us. It is often by their influence that many 
scholars attend school." 

Mr. Browning adds that the great use of school committees is undeniable. 
I need only add that they are entirely unpaid and that the number of gentlemen 
serving on these committees is between three and four thousand. This is 
certainly a fact that affords great encouragement to those interested in the 
success of the present measure. 2 

1 Ibid., XXII (1883), 8. 2 Ibid., pp. 11-12. 



112 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

By this plan .... several advantages are gained. First, we secure to 
the board the advantage of local knowledge of all parts of the area under its 
jurisdiction. Secondly, without directly choosing the electors, we obtain a 
manageable constituency or electoral body, to which we may be able to leave 
the choice of members. Thirdly, we get as members of the board the men who 
can best aid us in the execution of small local works, and fourthly, we connect 
the boards intimately with every village, and secure the presence in every village 
of a person who is represented on the board, who may look forward to becoming 
a member of the board, and who may fairly be expected to aid the board in the 
performance of its duties, and in the course of time will I hope come to regard 
himself as a part and parcel of the governing body of the country. 1 

The main provisions of the law itself were as follows: 

Preamble. Whereas, Provision has been made by the Central Provinces 
Land-Revenue Act of 1881, for the appointment of mukaddams for the several 
villages in the territories administered by the chief commissioner, and 

Whereas, Provision has been made in the settlement-records of the district 
in those territories for the levy of rates for the maintenance of roads, schools, 
and the district post, and it is proposed that the government shall, from time 
to time, assign certain sums, or the income accruing from certain sources, for 
the expenditure on objects tending to promote the welfare and improvement 
of the inhabitants of each of those districts. 

It is hereby enacted as follows: 

Section 4. There shall be established for each group of circles a local board 
having authority over that group, and for each district a district council having 
authority over the entire district, except such portions thereof as are for 
the time being included in the limits of a military cantonment or of a town 
having a municipal committee. 2 

Sec. 5. The local board for a group of circles shall consist of (a) representa- 
tive members, one or more for each circle, being the mukaddams of a village or 
villages within that circle; (b) representatives, one or more, of mercantile 
classes or professions resident within the area comprised in the group and 
elected by or appointed on behalf of those classes or professions; and (c) such 
person or persons, if any, not exceeding in number one-third of the board as 
the chief commissioner may from time to time appoint. 

Sec. 6. The district council of a district shall consist of (a) representatives 
of groups of circles within the district, one or more for each group being a mem- 
ber or members of and elected by the local board for that group; (b) representa- 
tives, one or more, of mercantile classes or professions, resident within the dis- 
trict and elected by or appointed on behalf of those classes or professions; 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 9. 

2 Collection of the Acts Passed by the Governor-General of India in Council in 1883, 
Act I. Calcutta, 1884. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 113 

and (c) such person or persons, if any, not exceeding in number one-third of 
the council, as the chief commissioner may from time to time appoint. 

Sec. 9. The following matters shall be subject to such exceptions as the chief 
commissioner may from time to time by order in writing make, be under the 
control and administration of the district council and of the local boards within 
the area subject respectively to their authority, (a) the construction, repair 
and maintenance of roads and other means of communication ; (b) the manage- 
ment, maintenance, and visiting of schools, hospitals, dispensaries, markets, 
rest houses, sarais, and other public institutions, and the construction and 
repair of all buildings connected with those institutions; (c) the construction 
and repair of public wells, tanks, and water works .....; (d) the planting 
and preservation of trees on public ground; (e) the establishment and main- 
tenance of relief works in time of famine or scarcity; (/) the establishment and 
management of pounds ..-..; (g) the management of such public ferries 
as may be intrusted to their charge . . . . ; (h) any other local works or 
measures likely to promote the health, comfort, or convenience of the public; 
and (z") the maintenance of any building or other property vested under this 
act in the district council. 

Sec. 10. (1) A local board, as the agent of and subject to the control of the 
district council, shall, within the area subject to its authority, have the control 
and administration of, and be responsible for all the matters specified in, 
Section 9, except such of those matters as the district council may think fit 
to take under its direct control and administration and such as the chief 
commissioner may have excepted by order under Section 9. 

(2) It shall be the duty of the district council to enforce the responsibility 
imposed on a local board by subsection (1). 

Sec. 19. (1) Every district council and local board shall, from time to time, 
elect one of its members to be chairman for one financial year at all meetings 
at which he is present 

The control features were: 

Section 28. (1) The deputy commissioner of a district shall have power 
to supervise the proceedings of the district council and of every local board 
.... and in the exercise of that power may .... (a) enter and inspect 
.... any immovable property occupied by the council, board, or committee; 
(b) call for and inspect any document . . . . ; (c) require the council, board, or 
committee to furnish such statements as he thinks fit. 

Sec. 29. (1) If in the opinion of the deputy commissioner the execution 
of any order of a district council [or] local board .... or the doing of any 
act .... under cover of this act is likely to cause injury or annoyance to 
the public .... or to lead to a breach of the peace he may .... prohibit 
the doing thereof 

(2) .... he shall forward to the commissioners a copy of the order with 
a statement of the reasons for making it and it shall be in the discretion of the 
commissioner to rescind the order. 



114 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

(3) The commissioner shall forthwith submit to the chief commissioner 
a report of every case occurring under this section. 

Sec. 30. (1) In cases of emergency the deputy commissioner may pro- 
vide for the execution of any work .... which a district council or local 
board is empowered . . . . to do. 

Sec. 32. (1) If a district council or local board is not competent .... 
the chief commissioner may with the previous approval of the governor- 
general in council .... supersede it. 

The next in the series of local self-government measures after the 
Central Provinces act was that for the Northwestern Provinces and 
Oudh. The best explanation of this law is that given by Mr. Quinton. 1 

The object of the Bill is to give effect to the views of the government of 
the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh on the subject of local self-government, as 
enunciated in the resolution of that government dated Lucknow fifth of Decem- 
ber, 1882, and published together with the letter of the Home Department con- 
veying the general approval of the government of India of Sir Alfred Lyall's 
proposals in the local and Imperial Gazettes during the month. 

The law at present in force in the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh does 
not admit of these proposals being fully carried out. The levy of rates in the 
United Provinces is authorized by Acts III and IV of 1878. Those- acts 
prescribe rigidly the proportion in which the rates levied under them are to 
be allotted by the local government to each district committee and direct the 
appointment of district committees for the purpose of assisting in determin- 
ing how the allotments shall be applied and in the supervision and control of 
the expenditure of such allotments; but they leave the appointment of the 
district committees and the definition of their functions and authority alto- 
gether in the hands of the local government; they allow of the members of each 
committee being so small as six, and of one-half of even this number being 
government officers; and they enable the local government to divert to general 
provincial objects all balance of the annual allotments remaining unexpended 
at the close of each year 

During the rainy season of last year, under instruction from .... the 
lieutenant governor and chief commissioner, district divisional officers put 
themselves in communication with the leading non-official gentlemen of their 
respective charges including the members of municipal and district committees. 
Meetings were held at tahsils by collectors or their assistants and at head- 
quarter stations by commissioners. The points on which the government 
wished for information were fully discussed at these meetings and elsewhere, 
and the outcome of the meetings and discussions was a mass of reports filling 
more than three hundred closely printed pages. In August the lieutenant 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 413-15- 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 115 

governor convened a large committee at Naini Tal, presided over by the 
senior member of the Board of Revenue and having on it as members three 
commissioners of divisions, four district officers, the heads of the police and 
educational departments, two officers of the secretariat, one of whom — Mr. 
Woodburn — had been a deputy commissioner of long experience and great 
efficiency in Oudh, and four distinguished native gentlemen, one of them — ■ 
Raja Siva Prasad — a member of this council. 

To this committee were referred for consideration the resolutions of the 
government of India on the subject of local self-government and the orders of 
the local government on the subject of those resolutions, the reports of the 
divisional and district officers to which I have above alluded and a draft bill 
embodying such provisions of Acts III and IV of 1878 and Act XV of 1873 as 
seemed prima facie applicable to the new arrangements. The report of this 
committee is dated the thirtieth of September and its labours are thus char- 
acterized by the local government, "To this Committee Sir Alfred Lyall is 
much indebted for clear and well reasoned conclusions upon all the principal 
matters referred for deliberation especially upon the methods best adapted for 
carrying out the policy of local self-government as declared by His Excellency 
the Governor General in Council." 

Then followed the Resolution of the fifth of December recorded by the 
local government accepting with certain modifications most of the recom- 
mendations of the committee. Bills were drafted to effect the necessary legis- 
lative changes which when finally approved of were forwarded to the govern- 
ment of India, but the Council toward the close of the Calcutta session was 
so much occupied with more pressing business that there was no time available 
for the consideration of those measures and I am only now in a position to 
introduce the bills as revised by the Legislative Department 

The bill, 1 My Lord, will thus confer on the people of the Northwestern 
Provinces and Oudh a substantial though not an unsafe measure of local self- 
government. It is a move and a decided but not a rapid move in that direction. 
For a somewhat centralized system of administration of local funds it estab- 
lished local bodies appointed mainly by such a form of election as is considered 
by those best acquainted with the provisions most suitable to their present 
condition, presided over by chairmen of their own choice charged with the 
performance of definite duties vested with the control of their own funds and 
possessed of the local knowledge and local interest which it is the tendency of 
centralized departments in their zeal for improvements sometimes arbitrarily 
to overrate. It is not to be expected that large results will at once be appar- 
ent from the passing of this Act or that a population composed chiefly of 
peasants and petty landholders engaged in a hard struggle for existence of 
whom not quite 6 per cent have acquired the arts of reading and writing, 
will suddenly manifest a great amount of public spirit, will display an unselfish 

1 Ibid., p. 538. 



Il6 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

interest in commercial affairs and develop a conspicuous genius for administra- 
tion but we may reasonably hope that in these respects a promising start will 
be made and a steady rate of progress gradually attained under the guidance 
of divisional and district officers second to none in India, in sympathy with 
and knowledge of the agricultural classes controlled by a lieutenant governor 
who has so thoroughly familiarized himself with the ideas and principles under- 
lying the structure of Indian society. 

The Northwestern Provinces and Oudh act 1 differed in no essentials 
from the Central Provinces. The local government was given general 
power to fix the size of the local boards and the relative proportion of 
elected and nominated members, with the restriction that not more 
than one-fourth be officials and prescribe the manner of election. 

The district boards were to be composed of members of the local 
boards or a proportion of them selected by election as the local govern- 
ment might think fit. The powers and functions of the boards were 
practically identical with those in the Central Provinces, as were also 
the control features. 

In the Punjab the local government fell in readily with Lord Ripon's 
proposals and issued a resolution in September, 1882. In it occurs the 
following passage: 

The object of the whole proceeding is to educate the people to manage their 
own affairs. At the outset it is admitted that amongst the native community 
the various capacities requisite in public life are for the most part immature; 
it is precisely for this reason that a period of public and political training is 
necessary. The value of the policy consists in its tendency to create and 
develop the capacity for self-help. Placed in new positions of responsibility, 
the representatives of the people on the local boards will become year by year 
more intelligent, self-reliant and independent. But these advantages can be 
secured only if the local boards are trusted. Their powers and responsibilities 
must be alike real in proportion; as if there is any pretence or illusion about 
either the one or the other, there is an obvious responsibility that the whole 
undertaking may degenerate into an officious dislocation of existing arrange- 
ments. No such miscarriage of a generous and enlightened policy must be 
suffered to occur in the Punjab. This risk escaped, the government anticipat- 
ing by wise reforms those legitimate aspirations which always gain substance 
and strength with the process of instruction, and providing a career for the 
people to open and expand with their growing intelligence and education, 
will avoid many of the dangers inherent in foreign rule. The scheme, in so 
far as it can be successfully worked, will tend to educate the country in public 
life, to relieve the government of the odium of petty interferences and small 
unpopular acts and to diminish any sense of antagonism between the people 

1 This law is printed in full in the United Provinces Code, 4th ed., 1906, pp. 282-301 . 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 117 

and the government, to promote better knowledge of the real aims of the 
governing body, to popularize taxation, to open useful if not exalted careers to 
the native gentry, and to interest leading men in the process of undertakings 
and the stability of institutions in which they will now have a personal and a 
prominent share. 1 

When the Punjab act was finally presented the following year, as 
Mr. Berkley said, the novel feature was the native participation 
provision. The 

Bill is not the first attempt to associate the people of the Punjab, outside of 
municipal towns, in the management of their own affairs. Before 1871 each 
district had its road and ferry fund committee, but these committees consisted 
entirely of officials, European and native, and had in most cases very limited 
funds at their disposal. In 1871 financial reasons made it necessary for the 
supreme government whilst partially decentralizing finance to make assign- 
ments to local governments falling short of the estimated expenditure of the 

departments, the charges of which were transferred to them To control 

the funds so raised, the Act enabled the lieutenant governor to appoint com- 
mittees in each district, and this power was exercised by appointing committees 
consisting of both official and non-official members, the former being generally 
appointed ex officio by the name of their office and the latter by nomination for 
a term of two years at a time. In this way a considerable number of the 
more intelligent and influential inhabitants of the districts had been associated 
with the leading officials in the expenditure of the district funds and had learnt 
to take some part in devising and carrying out measures for the general welfare. 
In some districts more progress had been made in this direction than in others 
and indeed, in some districts the poverty of the district funds or other local 
circumstances did not admit of such being done. 2 

The Punjab law 3 presented no unique features. The decision as to 
the where and when and size of the local boards was left to the local 
government with only the restriction that there must be at least six 
members. The proportion of officials was limited to one-third. At 
least one-half of the members were to be landholders in the district. 

In Bombay 4 there was a radical revision of the existing system neces- 
sary to comply with Lord Ripon's proposals. District local boards or 
local funds committees had been constituted by Bombay Act IV of 

1 Sir R. Temple, "Local Self-Government in India, the New Departure," Con- 
temporary Review, XLIII (Jan.-June, 1883), 380-81. 

2 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of India, XXII (1883), 433-34. 

3 Collection of Acts Passed by the Governor-General of India in Council in 1883, 
Act XX. Calcutta, 1884. 

4 W. W. Hunter, Bombay i88^-i8qo, p. 440. 



Ii8 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

1869. Under this act they were to be presided over by the collector of 
the district and to consist of certain district officials and one inamdar 
and six local landholders nominated by the government. Their functions 
were to administer the local cess. The taluka (or subdivisional) local 
funds committees were presided over by the deputy or assistant collector. 
Their primary function was to bring the wants of the taluka or sub- 
division before the district committee. 

The new law 1 provided for the introduction of the elective principle, 
made detail specifications for the powers and duties of the boards as 
well as providing for their supervision and control in practically the 
identical fashion of the preceding laws of the Ripon series. The pro- 
portion of officials and also of the elective members was fixed at one- 
half of the membership. Somewhat elaborate provision was made for 
class representation. On the local boards there was to be one member 
for each municipality included in its area, one for the big landowners. 
On the district boards there were to be members from each local board 
of the district, for each municipality of over eighteen thousand inhabit- 
ants, and for the big landowners. The sources of income, the powers, 
and the control provisions resembled those of the other laws. 

By this law the size of the district board was fixed at twenty-four, 
and the collector of the district was made the ex officio chairman. The 
provision for the elective system was left permissive with the governor 
in council. The possible electorates provided were the local boards, 
the panchayats, and the tax-payers. The number of officials was 
limited to one-fourth the membership. The taxes and the functions 
authorized and the control features were like those of the other laws. 
One unique feature was the permission to establish panchayats for unions 
at petty villages. These were to consist of five members of which 
the headman was to be one. 

Four months later than the Bombay act came the Madras measure, 
which received the requisite approval of the governor-general in council 
and went into effect July 2, 1884.; 2 The act created district boards of 
not less than twenty-four members under the chairmanship of the 
collector of the district. By special authorization of the governor in 
council the members were, however, to be permitted to elect their own. 
The members themselves might be elected or appointed as the governor- 
general in council might direct. Where authorized the elected members 
were to make up three-fourths of the membership. The electorates were 

1 Bombay Code, 3d ed., 1907, II, 824. Act I of 1884. 

2 Madras Code, 4th ed., 1915, Vol. I. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 119 

to be the taluk boards, the panchayats, the tax-payers, or merely the 
"inhabitants." Officials were eligible for appointment. 

Below the district boards were to be the taluk boards, under the 
presidency of the revenue officer unless special authorization for the 
election of the president were to be given by the governor in council, 
who was also empowered to determine their size and proportion of 
members to be elected 

The taxes authorized as usual were on lands, houses, vehicles, and 
various licenses for the erection of structures. The functions of the 
boards covered the same category of sanitation, police, and general 
welfare activities as the other laws. The control provisions were 
identical. 

The last of the "Ripon Group" of local self-government measures 
was the Bengal act 1 which became law on July 22, 1885. This law 
required the creation of the district boards, but left the establishment 
of the local boards dependent on the judgment of the lieutenant governor. 
The minimum size for the district board was placed at nine, for the local 
board at six. The chairman of the district board was to be elected. 
The electorate for the local boards was to consist of the members of 
the union committees, adult men who paid a one-rupee road cess or 
possessed an income of two hundred and forty rupees, a member of 
a family some member of which was qualified for election, held a uni- 
versity degree or was a pleader. The qualification required of the 
members was the payment of a five-rupee tax or a taxed income of 
one thousand rupees. To the local boards were intrusted such func- 
tions as the lieutenant governor saw fit. The functions of the district 
boards were prescribed in detail, but practically identical with those 
of the other laws. 

In all of the various acts, in spite of variations in details as to the 
kind of taxes to be imposed and the purposes for which they were to 
be applied, the rough outline of the scheme was the same. At the 
bottom was the local board, sometimes elected, more frequently 
appointed by the government through the district or subdistrict officer, 
except in the cases when it was allowed to elect its chairman, as in 
Bengal. 

Above it was the district board, composed in some cases of govern- 
ment appointees, and in others of members of the local boards. As a 
rule, the district boards were under the chairmanship of the district 
officer, in name at least, though in many cases the real work devolved 

1 The act is printed in full in the Bengal Code, 4th ed., II, 907. Act III of 1885. 



120 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

upon the vice-chairman and in others the boards were permitted to 
elect their own chairman. 

The reasons for retaining the district officer in the office of chair- 
man in many cases was thus explained by Mr. Quinton during the debate 
on the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh Local Board Act. 1 Regarding 

the appointment of the chairman, the lieutenant governor and the chief com- 
missioner observe that the question of the chairmanship of the district board 
was the subject of prolonged discussion by the provincial committee. Their 
finding coincides in principle with the opinions and prepossessions generally 
elicited by the district inquiries and recorded in the district and divisional 
reports. Of the four native members of the Provincial Committee, three 
strenuously insisted upon the necessity for maintaining by law the chief 
district officer as chairman of the District Board. The fourth — a gentleman 
of large property and influence in his own district — held a different opinion, 
though it may be added that while he is said to be exceedingly well fitted for the 
chairmanship, he had nevertheless declined the office in his own district on 
the grounds of indifferent health, want of leisure, and residence at a distance 
from headquarters; and the district and divisional reports, which in the 
lieutenant governor's opinion evince on the part of the writers a most satis- 
factory disposition to interpret the genuine feeling and wishes of the people, 
indicate clearly that the main current of native opinion runs decidedly toward 
maintaining the position of the chief district officer at the head of local affairs, 
until some experience in the transaction of public business and the manage- 
ment of committees has been gained by leading members of the native com- 
munity. It is beyond doubt expedient that the District Board should be 
exempt from official pressure and unnecessary interference; but the lieutenant 
governor is confident that in these Provinces all district officers are thoroughly 
prepared to give every facility and aid to the policy of the supreme government 
and to promote whatever measures may be adopted for its introduction. 

But .... the middle course recommended by the Committee in the 
twelfth paragraph of their report, which course the lieutenant governor and 
chief commissioner have decided, with a slight amendment, to adopt, will further 
test the wishes of the country and will allow time for opinion to form and 
show itself among the district boards themselves. The Committee recom- 
mended that the district officer shall be ex officio chairman of the District 
Board, except when the Board on application made to the government by a 
majority of the members, receives permission to elect a non-official chairman 
from their own body. 

It is manifest that local self-government meaning a system of administra- 
tion by the gratuitous exertions of persons best acquainted with the character- 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 420. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 121 

istics of the neighborhoods in which they are interested — and possessed of 
means, leisure, and public spirit enabling and impelling them to devote them- 
selves to that administration — cannot be initiated and developed into real 
independence except by men who can lead and will be trained by the commun- 
ity at large. This is how all systems of local representation have begun in all 
times and countries; so that it would be remarkable if in such a country as 
India the best way of beginning were to be found to be by popular suffrage. 
That the services of such men could be secured by open election, that they 
themselves would seek election or would generally allow their names to be 
submitted for the purpose seems from all the information hitherto collected 
to be questionable. If, therefore, we find that the views and prepossessions, 
as far as they have been elicited, of persons qualified to form a judgment on 
the best mode of initiating local self-government in the extensive districts of 
these Provinces are largely in favour of leaving at the outset the constitution 
of the local boards more or less in the hands of the government, there seems to 
be no sufficient reason for endeavoring almost on the spur of the moment, to 
invent any such elective machinery as would necessarily raise numerous and 
various questions of franchise and voting rights and all the practicable diffi- 
culties inseparable from the attempt to adjust an arbitrary system to the diverse 
circumstances of the country. 1 

Nothing was further from their intention than to place local representative 
bodies in a position of absolute freedom from government control. What was 
proposed was not to remove such control, but to alter its character, to substi- 
tute for dictation from within control from without, and to take care that this 
control should be exercised with reference to fixed and general principles and 
for definite and intelligible reasons, control in this form, so far from being incom- 
patible with, was an essential feature of, any good system of local self- 
government. 2 

On the same question, Sayyad Ahmed Khan, probably the most 
prominent and progressive Mahommedan of the time, said during the 
debate on the Central Provinces Local Self-Government Bill : 

I am one of those who believe that the success of local self-government 
will, in a great measure, depend upon the amount of independent power to be 
conferred upon the local boards and the district councils. Indeed, I am con- 
vinced that it may be safely laid down as a general rule, that the greater the 
powers conferred upon these bodies, the greater will be the cordiality, earnest- 
ness, and industry with which the work will be performed by the members. 
Holding such views it would be only natural for me to dissent from such pro- 
visions in the bill as are intended to authorize interference on the part of district 
authorities. But, My Lord, I wish to offer no opposition as I am aware that 
this bill relates to the Central Provinces, that those provinces are among the 

1 Ibid., p. 417- 2 Ibid., p. 25. 



122 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

least advanced people of British India, and I feel that in this circumstance is 
to be found justification for exceptional treatment. 1 

Turning to the general principle of self-government, Sayyad Ahmad 
Khan went on to say: 

These clauses reserve to the government the power to appoint members of 
the local boards and the district councils not exceeding one third of the whole 
number. I regard this provision in the Bill with unqualified satisfaction. As 
this is the first occasion on which the subject of local self-government has come 
before the legislature, I cannot avoid expressing a hope that the provision to 
which I have alluded is an indication of the policy which the government 
intends to pursue in regard to legislation for other provinces also. How far the 
government should control the constitution of local boards and district councils 
is a matter of principle by no means peculiar to the Central Provinces. It is 
indeed a matter that goes to the very root of the entire scheme of local self- 
government for which the country is indebted to Your Lordship's administra- 
tion. To that, noble scheme I am proud to give my hearty though humble 
support, for I rejoice to feel that I have lived long enough to see the inaugura- 
tion of the day when India is to learn at the hands of her rulers those principles 
of self-help and self-government which have given birth to representative 
institutions in England, and have made her great among the nations of the 
world. My Lord, I sincerely believe that all the intelligent classes throughout 
India sympathize with the feelings which I have expressed, that they feel 
grateful to the government for the privileges which the scheme of local self- 
government will confer upon them and that the effect of those privileges will 
be to enhance the popularity of the British rule and to inspire feelings of loyalty 
and devotion among the vast population of British India. The more real those 
privileges are, the more beneficial will be the results. Having such views and 
feelings as these, I cannot possibly have sympathy with those who depreciate 
the withdrawal of the government from the direct management of local funds 
and local affairs, and it is natural for me to wish as a matter of principle that 
the local boards and district councils should consist, as far as possible, of 
persons whom the voice of the people has elected as their representatives. 
But, My Lord, I feel that I am not acting inconsistently with my feelings and 
views in cordially supporting these provisions of this Bill which reserve to 
the government the power of appointing one-third of the members of the local 
boards and district councils. I am convinced that no part of India has yet 
arrived at the stage when the system of representation can be adopted in its 
fullest scope, even in regard to local affairs. The principle of self-government 
by means of representative institutions is perhaps the greatest and noblest 
lesson which the beneficence of England will teach India. But in borrowing 
from England the system of representative institutions it is of the greatest 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 16. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 123 

importance to remember those socio-political matters in which India is dis- 
tinguishable from England. The present socio-political condition of India is 
the outcome of the history of centuries of despotism and misrule, of the domi- 
nancy of race over race, of religion over religion. The traditions and feelings 
of the people and their present economic and political condition are in a vast 
measure influenced and regulated by the history of the past; and the humaniz- 
ing effects of the British rule have not yet demolished the remembrance of the 
days of strife and discord which preceded the peace brought to India by the 
British supremacy. India, a continent in itself, is inhabited by vast popula- 
tions of different races and different creeds; the rigor of religious institutions 
has kept even neighbors apart; the system of caste is still dominant and power- 
ful. In one and the same district the population may consist of various creeds 
and nationalities, and whilst one section of the population commands wealth 
and commerce, the other may possess learning and influence. One section may 
be numerically larger than the other, and the standard of enlightenment which 
one section of the community has reached may be far higher than that attained 
by the rest of the population. One community may be fully alive to the 
importance of securing representation on the local boards and district councils, 
whilst the other may be wholly indifferent to such matters. Under these 
circumstances it is hardly possible to deny that the introduction of representa- 
tive institutions in India will be attended with considerable difficulty and 
socio-political risks. In a country like England, where the distinctions of 
race no longer exist, where the differences of sectarianism in religious matters 
have been mitigated by the advance of toleration, the matter does not present 
such difficulties. The community of race and creed makes the English people 
one and the same nation and the advance of education has rendered smaller 
differences wholly insignificant in matters connected with the welfare of the 

country at large 

The system of representation by election .... in countries where the 
population is composed of one race and one creed .... is no doubt the best 
system that can be adopted. But, My Lord, in a country like India where 
caste distinctions still flourish, where there is no fusion of the various races, 
where religious distinctions are still violent, where education in its modern 
sense has not made an equal or proportionate progress among all the sections 
of the population, I am convinced that the introduction of the principle of 
election pure and simple for representation of various interests on the local 
boards and the district councils would be attended by evils of greater signifi- 
cance than purely economic considerations. So long as differences of race 
and creed and the distinctions of caste form an important element in the socio- 
political life of India, and influence her inhabitants in matters connected with 
the administration and welfare of the country at large, the system of election 
pure and simple cannot be safely adopted. The larger community would 
totally override the interests of the smaller community, and the ignorant 
public would hold the government responsible for introducing measures which 



124 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

might make the differences of race and creed more violent than ever. [For 
this reason] .... I, a sincere admirer of the representative system, have 
given my cordial support to such provisions of this Bill as appear to militate 
against a system of election pure and simple. The government in reserving 
to itself the power of appointing one-third of the members of the local boards 
and district councils is adopting the only measure which can be adopted to 
guarantee the success of local self-government by securing and maintaining that 
due and just balance in the representations of the various sections of the 
Indian population which the system of election pure and simple would fail 
to achieve. 1 

In all of the acts the provisions for control by the government were 
almost identical. 2 The annual budget estimate of income and expendi- 
ture must be approved by the deputy commissioner, commissioner, or 
governor as the case might be, and no expenditure not therein provided 
for could afterward be incurred without his sanction. The limits of 
authority in detailed expenditure were also clearly laid down. Besides 
this, the district officer or the deputy commissioner had power to super- 
vise the proceedings of every local body, a copy of the record of which 
must be submitted to him without delay. He might inspect any work 
and call for any document, and he received full accounts and statements 
prescribed by rule. He was thus able easily to keep himself informed of 
all that was going on. He had the power to suspend the execution of 
the orders of any local body, and in cases of emergency to take all 
necessary action himself which he was to report to higher authority; 
and the local government had power to provide for the performance of 
duties neglected by the district council, and might even set aside a 
council or board or remove any of its members in case of incompetence, 
default, or abuse of powers. Finally, the act did not apply to any 
district until it had been specially extended by the local government. 

Discussing these control provisions, Mr. Crosthwaite said: 

The control sections of the Bill are perhaps the only part of the measure 
which has evoked any hostile criticism. They are thought by some writers 
in the public press to be too strong and to be inconsistent with the freedom 
or independence of local bodies. 

It is said by one writer that "the local boards and district councils will 
thus be absolutely at the mercy of the deputy commissioner. It will be impos- 
sible for them to do anything against his wishes." 

I do not think that the gentleman who brought this accusation could 
have understood this portion of the Bill. The deputy commissioner has a 
very limited power of interference. 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-Getieral of India, XXII 
(1883), 18-20. 

2 A. H. L. Fraser, op. cit., pp. 243-44. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 125 

He can object to an estimate, but the commissioner has to decide on his 
objection and will doubtless take care to let the board or council be heard before 
coming to a decision. He can inspect works and call for reports, but no local 
body which is conscientiously doing its duty need fear inquiry. He can 
suspend the execution of an order or resolution, if he thinks anything is being 
done to cause injury or annoyance or lead to a breach of the peace, and, in 
very extraordinary emergencies, he can step in and execute a work which would 
properly belong to the board or council. But these powers can only be exer- 
cised subject to the check of immediate report to the commissioner and in some 
cases to the chief commissioner. 1 

The feelings of the natives toward Ripon as the result of his self- 
government measures is difficult of analysis. It was very much com- 
plicated by his other projects, especially the Ilbert bill and the repeal 
of the cotton duties. In part it was devotion to one whom they regarded 
as their champion against the Anglo-Indian. In part it was a genuine 
appreciation of his efforts and measures. Whatever the motives, there 
is no question of the enthusiastic esteem in which he was and has ever 
since been held. It is worth while quoting a few selections taken more or 
less at random. The Tut E Hind (Urdu weekly) of Meerut, April, 
1884, contained the following: 

.... Since his setting foot on the soil of India he has done his best to 
force her [India] from thraldom and to confer on her the freedom enjoyed by 
all the other countries of the world. Although owing to certain causes his 
intentions have not been fully carried out, yet it is evident enough that he 
has opened a door of which future rulers may make good use. 2 

The Indian Spectator, an English weekly of Bombay, 3 on Septem- 
ber 14, 1884, applied to him the epithets of "Ripon the Just," "The 
Saviour of the Peoples," and "The Idol of the People." 

The Amrita Bazar Patrika, an English weekly of Calcutta, said on 
September 18, 1884: 

India is a place where it is impossible for such men as Lord Ripon to reside. 
The very atmosphere of such a place is suffocating to his high nature. It is 
true that His Lordship has not been able to do much for India, but His Lord- 
ship has done much for the English nation and the persons who rule India. 
His Lordship has proved beyond doubt that even an Englishman can be 
unselfish and can sincerely love the people of a conquered country. He has 
proved that even a governor-general of India can feel the intolerably oppressive 
spirit of the Anglo-Indian community.'' 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXII 
(1883), 13. 

2 Voice of India, II (1884), 293. 3 Ibid., p. 579. * Ibid., p. 580. 



126 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

We quite agree with the Anglo-Indian press that Lord Ripon has 
been a failure as a governor-general. The Anglo-Indians claim for that 
post qualifications such as might foster the brute force of a governing 

race and put down all the finer feelings of the heart Although 

Lord Ripon has done very little for the people of this country, although 
since March last His Lordship has been sitting idle at Simla .... 
yet had it not been for the presence of Lord Ripon in the country the 
people would have received with quite another feeling the advance of 
Russia to our frontiers than they actually have done. 

The Sahas, the English weekly at Allahabad, wrote, October 22: 
In a country like India where the ruling race actuated by race jealousy 
and forgetting that the conquered natives are the descendants of the same 
time-honoured old Aryans, who were also their ancestors, strenuously oppose 
every government scheme that has for its object the material advancement of 
native India. Lord Ripon found the obstacles too great. 1 

The Hindu Patriot, an English weekly of Calcutta, on December 1, 
1884, wrote: 

The retiring viceroy was full of good intentions, but His Excellency failed 
to carry them out in any important respect if we except the repeal of the Gagging 
Act and the beginning that has been made of the scheme for election for munici- 
palities and local boards He has made a few showy concessions to the 

natives and given them some shadow of advantage; but no act of any magni- 
tude has been successfully carried out during the last four years and a half. 
There is nothing of any magnitude which we can appeal to as of substantial 
and permanent value bequeathed to us by Lord Ripon, and nothing will be 
left which our children and our children's children will be able gratefully to 
associate with the name of Lord Ripon. On the other hand, though His 
Lordship has, during his viceroyalty been most vehemently condemned by his 
countrymen, both official and non-official, as their enemy and denounced in 
every possible and imaginable form here and in Great Britain, yet he will be 
remembered by posterity as the special benefactor of the English commercial 
interests in India and the King John of the East, securing eternal freedom of 
British-born subjects from the jurisdiction of native magistrates. 2 

The Sahachar, a Bengali weekly of Calcutta, December 17, 1884, 
wrote: "Those who assert that such a ruler is a cause of danger to the 
empire are not fit to remain in human society; they ought to be located 
in the lunatic asylum." 3 

Lord Ripon's tour of the country before leaving India was a succes- 
sion of demonstrations. 4 Half the population of Calcutta turned out 

1 Voice of India, II, (1884), 651. * Ibid., p. 752. 

2 Ibid., p. 739. 4 Ibid., p. 744. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 127 

into the station sheds and people came from remote villages and stations 
to participate with hymns, flags, flowers, odes, and hurrahs. In Bombay 
there were notices, bunting, and a great illumination. 1 At Alighur 
College the Tamiam of the viceroy was carried by the respectable and 
leading members of the native community on their shoulders. 

Well-informed English opinion on the whole was from the outset 
skeptical, if not cynical, as to the reality of the reforms. The follow- 
ing is a specimen: 

What India really asks for as the goal of her ambitions is self-government — 
that is to say, that not merely executive but legislative and financial power 
should be vested in native hands. At present the legislative authority of 
each presidency resides in the governor in council, and there is no system what- 
ever of popular representation, even of the most limited kind. The councils 
are composed wholly of nominees and, except in a very small measure, of 
English official nominees, and their functions are limited to consultation and 
advice, for they are without any real power of initiative or even of veto. In 
each of these councils a few natives have been given places, but they are in no 
sense representatives of the people, being, on the contrary, nominees of the 
government, chosen specially for their subservience to the ideas of the govern- 
ment of the day; and their independence is effectually debarred by the further 
check that their appointment is for three years only, and reversible at the end 
of such period by the simple will of the governor. All the other members— 
and they form the large majority — are English, civil, or military officers, who 
look to appointments on the councils as the prizes of their service, and who 
usually represent the quintescence of official ideas. Lord Ripon, indeed, took 
pains to get together men of a liberal sort in his own Supreme Council; but as 
a rule those who enjoy this position are anxious only to secure reappointment 
at the end of their three years' term. Thus, instead of representing the ideas 
current among the native classes from which they spring, they serve only as an 
echo or chorus to the governor or to the permanent officials who sway the 
governor. 2 

The application of the principles of self-government embodied in 
the laws inaugurated by Lord Ripon were very much complicated by 
practical difficulties. Mr. Hunter's comments made in 1892 are sig- 
nificant: 

The extension of local self-government to India is a question that can be 
looked at from many points of view. The educated natives and their Euro- 
pean friends advocate the establishment of municipalities and local boards, 
both as affording training grounds for learning the duties and responsibilities 

1 Ibid., p. 749. 

2 "England's Place in India," Fortnightly Review, XLIII (Jan.-June, 1885), 
393-94- 



128 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

of administration and as the necessary sequel of the English political axiom 
"no taxation without representation." 

The taxpayer looks upon such schemes as a fresh method of raising money 
from him. The trained English administrator is apt to disparage the practical 
results — results which he could have accomplished more speedily and more 
thoroughly on his own authority. 

The government of India bears all these considerations in mind. It has 
insisted on the creation of municipalities and local boards, but it protects the 
taxpayer by limiting the amount of local taxation and it checks extravagant 
or perverse administration by close supervision and, when needful, by inter- 
ference. 1 

The actual working of all the municipal acts was very much the 
same in all the provinces. The government of India and the provincial 
governments have published annual reviews of the working of municipal 
and rural self-government. Aside from the variations in the bewilder- 
ing series of figures, there are certain generalizations that apply to 
them all. 

The number of municipalities varies. It has been as high as 764 
(1899) but recently has manifested a tendency to decline, dropping to 
717 in 1909. The population living in the municipalities numbers only 
between sixteen and seventeen millions or about 7 per cent of the total. 
Bombay usually has the greatest proportion and Assam the lowest. 

The whole number of members of the municipal committees is over 
ten thousand, about half of whom are elected. Of the remainder about 
15 per cent are usually ex officio and 35 per cent nominated by the 
government. The provinces vary in the proportion of elected members. 
In Burma for the year 1 906-7 , 2 only 13 per cent of the members were 
elected outside of Rangoon, and there were none in British Baluchistan 
and the Northwestern Frontier Province. The non-officials at times, 
as in Bombay in 1906-7, have been 91 per cent of the committee member- 
ship and are usually about three-fourths of the membership. Over 80 
per cent of the members are usually natives. 

The municipalities 3 vary greatly and are of very unequal merit in 
judgment of the government. No generalization is possible as to the 
relative development of the different provinces. In all of them a pro- 
portion that varies from year to year of the municipalities are superseded 
for efficiency, a larger number as a rule are commended, and the vast 
majority merely rated as satisfactory. 

1 W. W. Hunter, Bombay, 1885-1890, p. 429. 

2 The Hindu, September 17, 1908, p. 23, col. 1. 

3 Madras General Municipal Review, 18QQ-IQ04, p. 3, 1902. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 1 29 

The chief criticisms are lack of interest on the part of the voters and 
members, manifesting itself in failure to attend the polls or meetings. 
Usually it is the non-officials who are criticized for lack of interest, but 
occasionally the official members themselves draw a rebuke for non- 
attendance. 

Similar resolutions have been annually issued dealing with the district 
and local boards. Over two hundred millions of human beings are 
cared for by these organizations. The same elaborate array of figures 
is found in the resolutions on the rural areas as in those dealing with 
the municipalities. 

In all India (except Burma) -there were in 1912-13, 198 district 
boards with 5,032 members, of which 2,364 were elected. 1 In the same 
year there were 536 local boards and 8,005 members, 3,711 of whom 
were elected. The proportion of elected members 2 is lowest in Madras 
of all the provinces, except the Northwestern Frontier Province where 
there has been none since 1903-4. 

There seems to be a general agreement that local self-government 
has not been a dazzling success. There are, however, wide divergencies 
in opinion as to the reasons. The natives say in the words of the Hindu, 
"The government in all matters of local self-government has yielded 
only under extreme pressure and put no heart into the experiments." 3 

"The extreme caution, bordering on unwillingness of government 
in giving effect to Lord Ripon's scheme of associating people very largely 
with government in local affairs cannot be justified, and answers to 
representations made on the subject have been extremely unsatis- 
factory." 4 

The progress of our local bodies is at a standstill, and in certain respects 
they are inevitably drifting backwards. The laws that regulate their working 
and the agencies by means of which those laws are worked are hampering their 
free growth in a variety of ways and since the time Lord Ripon planted them 
they have become dwarfed and stunted and incapable of expanding in the 
manner so generously contemplated by him. The noble aims and purposes 
of the government of the time were largely defeated by the laws that were 
enacted at a later stage and the objects and purpose of even those illiberal 
laws have been further defeated by designing officialdom, to whom the widest 
scope is given for successful execution of their sinister designs. 5 

1 Statesman' 's Year Book, 1915, p. 123. 

2 Hindu, November 5, 1908, p. 23, col. 2. 

3 Ibid., October 26, 191 1, p. 22, col. 3. 

4 Ibid., February 19, 1914, p. 15, col. 1. s Ibid., March 14, 1907, p. 11, col. 1. 



130 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

At the other extreme are the views represented by Sir Macworth 
Young, lieutenant governor of the Punjab, who said: 

The people rarely manifest any interest in the election of their representa- 
tives, and the elected representatives rarely represent the real interests of 
their constituents. If any position on the Board is coveted it is that of the 

nominated, not of the elected members The absence of a wholesome 

public spirit in the rural community lies at the root of this failure and until 
this want is supplied, local self-government in the rural tracts of the 
Punjab will be more or less of a farce. 1 

So it goes, one party blaming the attitude of the government for 
the shortcomings of the local bodies, the other blaming the people for 
their lack of interest. 

The most authoritative and probably the best general summary of 
the working of local self-government is the following from the Parliamen- 
tary report of 1918: 

We have seen already that the hopes entertained of these bodies have not 
in the past been fulfilled. The avowed policy of directing the growth of local 
self-government from without rather than from within has on the whole been 
sacrificed to the need for results; and with the best intentions the presence of 
an official element on the boards has been prolonged beyond the point at 
which it would merely have afforded very necessary help, up to a point at which 
it has impeded the growth of initiative and responsibility. 

Municipal practice varies between provinces: some have gone farther in 
the direction of elected majorities, others in the direction of elected chairmen: 
Bengal has gone far in both directions. But, over much of the country urban 
self-government in the smaller towns still depends largely on official support 
and guidance. The elected members of the boards appear to have difficulty in 
facing the disfavor aroused by a raising of the rates, or a purification of the 
electoral roll, or drastic sanitary improvements, unless they feel that the 
district officer is behind them, and even when he is not a member of the board 
he is generally armed with powers of inspection and advice. 

In rural areas where people are less educated and less practiced in affairs and 
where the interests involved are diffused over large areas instead of being con- 
centrated under their eyes every day, the boards are constituted on a less popu- 
lar basis. Usually from three-quarters to one-half the members of the district 
boards are elected, and the electorate represents anything from ten to two 
per thousand of the rural population. The Decentralization Commission 
advise that the district officer should continue to preside over the district board 

1 A. Rogers, "The Progress of the Municipal Idea in India," Imperial and 
Asiatic Quarterly Review, 3d Ser., XIII (1902), 275. 



RIPON'S REFORMS— THE LAWS 131 

because they did not wish to cut him off from the district interests, and were 
anxious to retain his administrative experience; and up till now the Central 
Provinces are the one province in which marked headway has been made in 
the direction of choosing the chairman by election. 

Generally speaking, therefore, we may say that while within town areas 
elected town councils control the administration of their roads, schools, drain- 
age, conservancy, lighting, and the like, the district officer is still at hand as a 
stimulus and a mentor; and in the more backward district boards he still plays 
an important part, because as chairman he directs the executive agency of the 
board. Rural education, dispensaries, sanitation, country roads, bridges, 
water-supply, drainage, tree planting, veterinary work, pounds, ferries, sarais, 
and the like are all matters which to a great extent he still administers, not 
primarily as a servant of the government but in behalf of, indeed in some 
provinces as the formerly elected president of, a popular body; and the com- 
missioner above him exercises considerable supervision over the boards' 
proceedings. 1 

The reforms of Lord Ripon do not mark the end of municipal legisla- 
tion in India, but they do close the story of the establishment of local 
self-government in India. 2 In most of the provinces the laws for the 
rural areas still stood at the outbreak of the world-war, though slightly 
modified in details by later minor amendments necessitated by growth 
in size and the development of new conditions of life. The municipal 
laws had suffered more severely, but even they still remained on the 
statute books as the fundamental municipal law. The most extensive 
alterations had been made in Bengal and Madras. In other of the 
provinces it had been thought simpler to pass new acts incorporating 
the new details instead of amending the old. The result had in effect 
been the same. To all intents and purposes the laws of the 1880's 
still stood, as far as the provisions for self-government were concerned. 
Their provisions had been found elastic enough to accommodate such 
progress as had been made. 

^'Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, pp. 103-4. East India, 
1018. 

2 What may be regarded as a possible exception to the statement that there were 
no important changes made in the provisions for municipal or rural self-government 
is the Lower Burma Village Act of 1889 which made provisions for a village and police 
system in what is in many respects the most distinctive of the provinces. The provi- 
sions for self-government were, however, very slight. In fact the law and its later 
amendments were nothing more than police measures which authorized the deputy 
commissioner to appoint a headman for each village, who was bound to perform certain 
police functions. 



132 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The following table indicates the laws modifying or replacing the 
measures of Lord Ripon. 



Province 



Municipal Acts 



Local Area Acts 



Bengal . 



Bombay . 



Burma . 



Central Provinces . 



Madras . 



Punjab . 



United Provinces . 
(Northwestern) 



1910 



1901 
J9° 2 



1895 
1898 
1902 
1903 
1906 
{ 1 909 

J1889 
1 1 903 

1897 
1899 
1907 
1909 
1913 



1896 
1900 

i9°S 
1911 

1900 
1901 



1887 towns 
1889 villages 
1892 towns 
1895 towns 
1899 towns 

1907 towns 

1908 towns* 



1900 



1906 



1906 



* The foregoing Burma acts are not really self-government measures in 
that they contain no privileges for popular control. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 

The origin of the Indian National Congress 

Western education 

Discontent 
The call 
The First Congress, Bombay, 1885 

Purposes announced 

Native estimates of the Congress 
Specimen of the resolutions of the Congress 
Features of the Congress movement 

Disregard of social issues 

Growth 

Elections 

Constitution, unwritten until 1906 

Sessions — favorite cities 

Expenses 

Language — English 

Predominance of lawyers and Brahmins 
Kindred organizations in the provinces 

Aloofness of the Mohammedans — Syed Ahmed Khan's influence 
The right of the Congress to speak for India 

The position of the educated class 
Numerical insignificance 

Their influence on the masses, slight but growing 
Their voice the only voice 

The influence of the Congress on the Indian Councils 
Acts of 1892 and 1909 
The attitude of the government toward the Congress — 'friendly interest chan- 
ging to suspicious tolerance 
English opinion on the conference 

Conservative antagonism and suspicion 

Liberal sympathy 

Radical support 
The movement for Indian members in Parliament 

Close on the heels of the reforms of Lord Ripon came in 1885 the 
first organized expression of native opinion, and what proved to contain 
the germ of a national consciousness. This was the Indian National 

*33 



134 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

Congress, which has played one of the leading roles in the steadily increas- 
ing agitation of the ensuing years, affording voluble outlet to discontent 
and something of a training ground for political agitators, and in recent 
years for political leaders. 

The Congress 1 was begotten by the spirit of the times and its vitality 
indicates that it has satisfied a want. The roots of the movement are 
traceable ultimately to racial difference and the restlessness of a subju- 
gated people, however light may be the yoke. There were, of course, 
in addition many secondary and contributing influences at work. 

There was the rancor 2 of the educated idle misfits and, more imme- 
diately, the savage bitterness aroused by the Ilbert bill, 3 which sought 
to give the native magistrates jurisdiction over Europeans; the cynical 
distrust engendered by the repeal of the cotton duties, believed to be in 
the interest of the Lancashire mills; and the disappointed despair at 
having the age limit steadily reduced for admission to the examination 
in England whereby entrance to the higher grades of the civil service 
only could be gained, thereby virtually closing it to Indians laboring 
under the handicap of a foreign language. 4 

On the other hand, the movement was aided and inspired by English 
liberalism represented by Mr. A. O. Hume who was one of the original 
promoters of the movement and until 1897 its general secretary. The 
British government also was by no means antagonistic at the outset, 
thinking that it would afford a valuable safety valve and source of 
indispensable information regarding native opinion. Lastly, the spread 
of the English language itself supplied the common medium of com- 
munication which had hitherto been lacking. 

1 Round Table, December, 1917, p. 27. 2 Fortnightly Review, XL (1883), 410-11. 

3 Loc. cit. The purpose of the Ilbert Jurisdiction Bill was to confer on native 
magistrates powers which would put them on precisely the same level with their 
European colleagues. It aroused a tremendous excitement and race feeling rose 
exceedingly high before it was finally virtually abandoned. The name was taken 
from Mr. Ilbert who was in charge of the measure. 

1 During the fifty years from 1855 to 1906 there had been six changes in the age 

limit ranging from 17 to 19 in 1878 to 22 to 24 in 1906. They were as follows: 

v Age Limit to Open 

1 ed - rb Examination 

1855-57 18-23 

1860-65 18-22 

1866-78 17-21 

1878-91 17-19 

1892-95 21-23 

H.T. Prinsep, "The Indian Civil Service," Nineteenth Century Review, LXXIII 
(1913), 699. 



THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 135 

It was with this background and these impulses that a group headed 
by Mr. Hume of the Indian Civil Service and Surendranath Bannerjea 
issued in March of 1885 the following call to hold a meeting of represen- 
tatives from all parts of India at the then coming Christmas. 

A Conference of the Indian National Union will be held at Poona from 
the twenty-fifth to the thirty-first, December, 1885. The conference will 
be composed of delegates, leading politicians well acquainted with the English 
language, from all parts of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras presidencies. 

The direct objects of the conference will be: (1) to enable all the most 
earnest laborers in the cause of the nation to become personally known to each 
other; (2) to discuss and decide upon the political operations to be undertaken 
during the ensuing year. 

Indirectly this conference will form the germ of a native parliament and 
if properly conducted will constitute in a few years an unanswerable reply to 
the assertion that India is still wholly unfit for any form of representative 
institutions. The first conference will decide whether the next shall be again 
held at Poona or whether, following the precedent of the British Association, 
the conference shall be held year by year at different important centers. 

This year the conference being in Poona, Mr. Chipolonkar and others of the 
Sarvajanik Sabha have consented to form a reception committee in whose 
hands will rest the whole of the local arrangements. The Peshwah's garden 
near the Parbati Hill will be utilized both as a place of meeting [it contains 
a fine hall, like the garden, the property of the Sabah] and a residence for 
the delegates, each of whom will be there provided with suitable quarters. 
Much importance is attached to this since, when all thus reside together for a 
week, far greater opportunities for friendly intercourse will be afforded than if 
the delegates were [as at the time of the late Bombay demonstration! scattered 
about in dozens of private lodging-houses all over the town. 

Delegates are expected to find their own way to and from Poona, but 
from the time they reach the Poona railway station until they again leave it 
everything that they can need: carriage accommodation, food, etc., will be 
provided for them gratuitously. 

The cost thus incurred will be defrayed from the reception fund, which the 
Poona Association most liberally offers to provide in the first instance, but to 
which all delegates whose means warrant their incurring this further expense 
will be at liberty to contribute any sum they please. Any unutilized balance 
of such donations will be carried forward as a nucleus for next year's reception 
fund. 

It is believed that exclusive of our Poona friends the Bombay presidency 
including Sindh and the Berars will furnish about twenty delegates, Madras 
and Lower Bengal each about the same number, and the Northwestern Prov- 
inces, Oudh, and the Punjab about half this number. 1 

1 Proceedings of the First Indian National Congress, Bombay, 1885, 2d ed., Madras, 
1905, p. iii. 



136 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

An outbreak of cholera in Poona 1 caused the meeting place to be 
shifted to Bombay. Seventy-two self-selected delegates responded to 
the call. Mr. Bonnerjee was elected president. His inaugural address 
defined the purposes of the Congress as follows: 

a) The promotion of personal intimacy and friendship amongst all the 
more earnest workers in our country's cause in the various parts of the empire. 

b) The eradication by direct friendly personal intercourse of all possible 
race, creed, or provincial prejudices amongst all lovers of our country, and the 
fuller development and consolidation of those sentiments of national unity 
that had their origin in their beloved Lord Ripon's memorable reign. 

c) The authoritative record after this had been elicited by the fullest 
discussion of the matured opinions of the educated classes in India on some 
of the more important and pressing of the social questions of the day. 

d) The determination of the lines upon and the methods by which during 
the next twelve months it is desirable for native politicians to labor in the 
public interest. 2 

The Congress adopted a series of nine resolutions. Inasmuch as 
they were the first and were so closely followed by those of the following 
years they serve as good specimens of the "Congress Resolutions." 
They follow: 

I. That this Congress earnestly recommends that the promised inquiry 
into the working of the Indian administration here and in England should be 
intrusted to a royal commission, the people of India being adequately repre- 
sented thereon and evidence taken both in India and in England. 

II. That this Congress considers the abolition of the Council of the 
secretary of state for India as at present constituted the necessary preliminary 
to all other reforms. 

1 Proceedings of the First Indian National Congress, Bombay, 1885, 2d ed., 
Madras, 1905, p. 9.. 

2 What the press thought of the movement is illustrated by these excerpts: 
Native Opinion, an Anglo-Marathi weekly of Bombay on January 3, 1886, said: 
An experiment of very great significance to the political future of India was 

carried out in Bombay during the last week very successfully. — Voice of India, IV 
(1886), 46. 

Indu Prakash, the Anglo Marathi paper of Bombay, on January 4, 1886, wrote: 
On the whole the three days' record of work is such as the organizers of 
the Congress may well be proud of. What the practical outcome of all this labor 
will be it is not possible to say, but we cannot be very sanguine about it. Neverthe- 
less the Congress cannot but be looked upon as an event of the highest significance 
and if it will not bring on any immediate advancement of our privileges it will not 
fail to yield many collateral advantages .... [We are ripe for such National 
Congresses or may be made so by their constant meeting.] such congresses must become 
a regular annual institution. — Ibid., p. 49. 

Amrita Bazar Patrika, an English weekly of Calcutta, on January 7, 1886, said: 
Bombay held a National Congress the other day. We always object to giving 
big names to small things. We wish we had a National Congress. — Ibid., p. 50. 



THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 137 

III. That this Congress considers the reform and expansion of the 
supreme and existing legislative councils by the admission of a considerable 
proportion of elected members .... [and the creation of similar councils 
for the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh and also for the Punjab] essential; 
and holds that all budgets should be referred to these councils for consideration; 
their members being moreover empowered to interpellate the executive in 
regard to all branches of the administration and that a standing committee 
should be constituted to receive and consider any formal protests that may 
be recorded by the majorities of such councils against the exercise by the 
executive of the power which would be vested in it of overruling the decision 
of such majorities. 

IV. That in the opinion of this Congress the competitive examinations 
now held in England for the first appointments in various civil departments 
of the public service should henceforth in accordance with the views of the 
India Office Committee of i860 be held simultaneously, one in England and 
one in India, both being as far as practicable identical in their nature, and 
those who compete in both countries being finally classified in one list according 
to merit. And that successful candidates in India should be sent to England 
for further study and subjected there to such further examinations as may 
seem needful. Further that all other first appointments [excluding peonships 
and the like] should be filled by competitive examinations held in India under 
conditions calculated to secure such intellectual, moral, and physical qualifica- 
tions as may be decided by government to be necessary. Lastly that the 
maximum age of candidates for entrance into the Covenanted Civil Service be 
raised to not less than 23 years. 

V. That in the opinion of this Congress the proposed increase in the 
military expenditures of the empire is unnecessary and, regard being had to 
the revenues of the empire and the existing circumstances of the country, 
excessive. 

VI. That in the opinion of the Congress, if the increased demands for 
military expenditure are not to be, as they ought to be, met by retrenchment 
they ought to be met firstly by the reimposition of the customs duties, and 
secondly by the extension of the license tax to those classes of the community, 
official and non-official, at present exempted from it, care being taken in the 
case of all classes that a sufficiently high taxable minimum be maintained. 
And further that this Congress is of the opinion that Great Britain should 
extend an imperial guaranty to the Indian debt. 

VII. That this Congress deprecates the annexation of Upper Burmah 
and considers that if the government unfortunately decides on annexation, 
the entire country of Burmah should be separated from the Indian viceroyalty 
and constituted a Crown Colony as distinct in all matters from the govern- 
ment of this country as is Ceylon. 

VIII. That the resolutions passed by this Congress be communicated to 
the political associations in each province and that these associations be 



138 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

requested with the help of similar bodies and other agencies within their respect- 
ive provinces to adopt such measures as they may consider calculated to 
advance the settlement of the various questions dealt with in these resolutions. 1 

Section IX provided for the next meeting of the Congress at Calcutta, 
December 28, 1886. 

It is noteworthy that these resolutions eschew social questions and 
confine themselves closely to political grievances. This policy has been 
strictly adhered to, principally because of the fear of stirring into irrecon- 
cilable flame any more animosities than could be helped. It has also 
been charged that this avoidance of all but political issues has been due 
to a hypocritical disinclination to molest the social ulcers of the Indian 
system while agitating against the English political dominion. This 
is by no means fair, for the same men and the same classes have supported 
the various social reform associations and organizations, especially the 
Indian National Social Conference which frequently holds its sessions in 
close proximity territorially and temporally with the political Congress. 2 

From the Bombay beginning the Congress grew rapidly, 3 at the next 
session at Calcutta there were 412 delegates, and the year after at 
Bombay, 607. The numbers have since fluctuated greatly according to 
the proportion of delegates allowed. The highest number of delegates 
was that of 1889 at Bombay just prior to the reduction in the proportion 
of representation because of the problem of furnishing entertainment. 
As a rule the delegates number in the vicinity of four hundred, but the 
visitors reach eight thousand or more. 

For years 4 there was no formal provision whatever for elections, 
and even now under the constitution of 1908 it is at most a more or less 
informal designation by local bodies of one description or another. In 
many cases it has been simply a question of who could be found willing 
to undergo the toil and expense of the journey to the sessions. 

No attempt has been made to divide the country into equal electoral 
districts. Until 1890 there was no attempt to restrict the number of 

1 Proceedings of the First Indian National Congress, 2d. ed., pp. 1-2. 

2 Regarding the question of discussing social questions, Native Opinion, the Anglo- 
Marathi weekly of Bombay on September 4, 1887, expressed the general opinion, 
"The last Congress acted very wisely in deliberately not taking up social questions. 
These are not national, but sectarian and are likely to raise much bad blood .... 
to introduce them [would be a mistake] as fatal as introducing religious topics into 
such assemblies." — Voice of India, V (1887), 453. 

3 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), col. 71. 

t R. S. Watson, "Indian National Congresses," Contemporary Review, LIV 
(1888), 91-92. 



THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 



1 39 



delegates sent by any particular locality. Where the inhabitants of 
any town were interested in the matter they held a meeting to elect 
representatives; where any association chose to do so, it held a general 
meeting of its members with a similar object. The association might 
be large or small; the public meeting in one place might be attended by 
hundreds, in another by thousands. No attempt was made to force or 
formulate the representation; it was all allowed to develop in its own 
way, and thus to be a representation of those actually interested in 
the matters to be discussed. 

In the beginning 1 there was no written constitution, and aside from 
the standing Congress Committee inaugurated in 1886 2 the Congress 
was conducted according to custom and unwritten rules until April, 1908, 
when a written constitution was adopted at a meeting of the Convention 
Committee held at Allahabad, as the result of the tumultuous disruption 
of the Congress at the Surat session in 1907 and the agitation for a 
written constitution conducted by the more progressive and radical 
element. 

The sessions 3 of the Congress have been held annually in one or 
another of the great cities of India. Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and 

1 Bombay Gazette (weekly), July 20, 1908, p. 3, col. 1. 

2 Report of the Indian National Congress, 1887, p. 9. 

3 The following is a summary of the sessions of the Congress during the years 
1885-1914. 



Year 


Place 


Delegates 


President 


1885 


Bombay 

Calcutta 

Madras 

Allahabad 

Bombay 

Calcutta 

Nagpore 

Allahabad 

Lahore 

Madras 

Poona 

Calcutta 

Amraoti 

Madras 

Lucknow 

Lahore 

Calcutta 

Ahmedabad 

Madras 

Bombay 

Benares 

Calcutta 

Surat 

Madras 

Lahore 

Allahabad 

Calcutta 

Bankipore 

Karachi 

Madras 


72 

440 

607 

1,248 

i,S9° 

677 

812 

625 

867 

1,163 

1,584 

784 

692 

6r4 

1 ,000 

567 

896 

47i 

538 

1,010 

757 

1,663 

1,200 

626 

243 

450 

440 

160 

55o 

866 


W. C. Bonnerjee 


1886 


Dadabhai Naoroji (Parsi) 


1887 


Budrudin Tyabji (Mah.) 


1888 


Mr. George Yule (Eng.) 


1889 


Sir William Wedderburn (Eng.) 




Pherozshah Mehta 


1891 

1893 

1894 

189s 

1896 


P. Ananda Charlu 

W. C. Bonnerjee 

Dadabai Naoroji (Parsi ) 

Alfred Webb, M.P. (Eng.) 

Surendranath Banerjee 

Rahimtulla Mohammad Syani (Mah.) 


1897 

1898 


C. Sankara Nayar 
Ananda Mohun Bose 




Romesh Chunder Dutt 


1901 

1903 

1904 

1905 


Sir Narayan Chandararkar 
Denshaw Eduljee Wacha 
Surendra Nath Banerjee 
Lai Mohan Ghose 
Sir Henry Cotton (Eng.) 
Mr. G. K. Gokhali 
Dadabhaii Naorji (Parsi.) 




Dr. Rash Behari Ghosh 




Dr. Rash Behari Ghosh 




Madan Mahan Malavyea 




Sir William Wedderburn (Eng.) 




Bishan Narayan Dar 




Rao Bahadur Mugholkar 




Nawab Syed Muhammad (Mah.) 




Bhupendra Nath Masu 







140 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

Allahabad have been the favorites. The expenses have from the start 
been borne, aside from a tax on the delegates, by voluntary contributions, 1 
either of the delegates themselves or by subscription in the places 
represented. 2 They have come from the humblest coolies as well as 
from Rajahs. Perhaps no other fact affords stronger proof of the hold 
the Congress has, unless it be the crowds and the toilsome distances 
travelled by some. 

The expenses are not light. In many cases there has been the cost 
of the building of a hall to accommodate the meetings of the Congress- 
There has always been the cost of entertaining the delegates. 

Food, servants, lights, furniture, medical treatment and accommodation 
generally, in every case suitable to the creed, caste, and class of the several 
delegates had to be provided — a task not only involving much expense but 
looking to the extraordinary differences in habits and customs that prevail 
among the people, demanded an incredible amount of foresight and organiza- 
tion. 3 

To all this must be added the cost of reporting, printing, and distributing 
a verbatim account of the proceedings of the Congress. 

The speeches of the Congress are made and its business conducted 
in English. There have been from time to time, occasional suggestions 
that some one or another of the various languages of India would be 
more suitable for an Indian gathering, but without result. As a rule 
these proposals are made for the adoption of the particular tongue of 
the person who advocates the change. As a matter of fact, so far 
English, inasmuch as its acquisition is necessarily involved in all higher 
education, furnishes a lingua franca for the educated classes who make 
up the Congress. 4 

1 R. S. Watson, op. tit., p. 91. 

2 Report of the Indian National Congress, 1887, p. 11. 

3 R. S. Watson, op. tit., p. 61. 

4 Some of the broader views of the vernacular side of the language question are 
represented by the following quotations. 

The Mahratta, the English weekly of Poona of September 4, 1887, said: 
The proceedings of the last two Congresses were carried on in English and it may 
be necessary to pursue the same course until a lingua franca for India grows upj but 
there is no reason why a commencement should not be made. The propositions 
must be framed in Hindu— a language which can be understood in most parts of the 
empire and must be put to the meeting in that language. 

The Indian Spectator, an English weekly in Bombay, on November 27, 1887, said: 

We think it is also a mistake to insist upon English alone being used by the 

speakers. With one or two competent interpreters it would be possible to hear 

some of the best views on problems of the day by indigenous thinkers. — Voice of India, 

VI (1887), 452-562. 



THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 14 1 

As is true in politics the world over, a preponderating proportion of 
the delegates of the Indian National Congress have always been lawyers, 1 
for instance, at least twenty-two of those who attended the First Congress 
were of that profession. 

In the provinces 2 the Congress has its counterparts in annual confer- 
ences modelled on the lines of the larger body and discussing very much 
the same subjects. 3 

From the inception of the movement, the great thorn in the side of 
the Indian National Congress has been the attitude of the Moham- 
medans. At first it was in part due to the relative fewness of educated 
members of the community who had the training and background 
requisite to share the ideals of the Congress. At the time these few 
were largely under the domination of their great leader, Syed Ahmed 
Khan, the founder of the Allyghur Mohammedan University. 4 His 
attitude, at first uncertain, crystallized into opposition, and in 1887 he 
delivered a polemic against the National Congress. 5 Thereafter the 
mass of the Mohammedans and most of their leaders had nothing to do 
with the Congress, although there have always been some, at times 
hundreds, in attendance. 

Religious antagonism also has contributed powerfully toward keeping 
the Mohammedans in general outside of the Congress. Even when in 
recent years a western educated intelligentsia had arisen among the 
Mohammedans and the need felt for some political organization became 
pressing, instead of joining forces with the Congress, the Mohammedans 
created, in 1906, the All India Moslem League. 

The claims of the Indian National Congress to represent all classes, 
races, and religions of educated India are technically correct in that 
representatives of most of them do at times attend its sessions-. Three 
Englishmen, Mr. Yule, Sir Henry Cotton, and Sir William Wedderburn, 
three Mohammedans, Mr. Budrudin Syabaja, Mr. Syani, Nawab Syed 
Muhammed, and a Parsi, Dadabhai Naoroji, have been presidents of 
its sessions. 

Representatives 6 of the aristocracy and the lower classes, commer- 
cial men, lawyers, professors, doctors, come to it. English, Eurasians, 

1 Proceedings of the First Indian National Congress, pp. 4-5. 

2 Voice of India, VII (1889), 345. 

3 Bengales, April 11, 1912, p. 5, col. 1; ibid., April 2, 1914, p. 2, col. 7. 

4 Sir Henry Cotton, New India or India in Transition, pp. 231-33. 

s John Morley "Signs of the Times in India," Edinburgh Review, CCVI (1907), 
299-300. 

6 R. S. Watson, op. cit., p. 92. 



142 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

Parsis, Hindus, Mohammedans, Sikhs, and native Christians are among 
the delegates. Broadly speaking, however, the Congress is predomi- 
nantly Hindu and confined to the educated classes (the "microscopic 
minority") which means in the majority of cases the Brahmins 1 who 
always have a plurality of the delegates. 

Whatever the real merits of the claims of the Congress to speak for 
India, there is no doubt that inasmuch as theirs is practically the only 
voice raised it is generally and uncritically taken as representing the 
demands of India. Since the birth of the All India Moslem League, 
the Congress has been obliged to divide the honors, but in so far as their 
expressions of opinion coincide, to that extent is their authority strength- 
ened. Certainly the government does not pretend to disregard or ignore 
them. There have been but few. measures passed since the inauguration 
of the Congress movement which have been of a political nature, but 
those few bear unmistakably the earmarks of the Congress. 

The debates in Parliament thoroughly bear out the statement of Mr. 
McNeill that "The four principles now embodied in the Bill [the Indian 
Councils Act of 1892] are mainly due to the Indian National Congress." 2 
It would be idle to pretend that the Morley-Minto reforms of 1907-9 
were uninfluenced by the expressions of opinion in the Congress and 
by its leaders. 

At the start 3 the government did not discourage the Congress move- 
ment. Lord Dufferin in the Calcutta session of 1886 gave a garden party 

1 See "List of Delegates" in Appendixes to the Annual Reports of the Congress. 
The Congress leaders have not by any means been all Brahmins, however. There 

are many — certainly a plurality of the Brahmins — among the castes represented at 
the sessions of the Congress. For instance, men like Mr. Tilak of Poona, the editor 
of the Kes.ari and leader of the radicals; Mr. Gokhale, one of the leading moderates; 
and Mr. W. C. Bonner jee, the president of the first Congress; and Mr. B. Chatterjee, 
his partner in starting the Bengalee, as well as Mr. Surendra Nath Bannerjea, who 
became the owner of that paper in 1878 are all Brahmins. 

On the other hand, there are many among the leaders of the Congress who are 
not Brahmins. Of these there may be mentioned the Ghose family, the proprietors 
and editors of the Amrita Bazar Patrika, Mr. K. G. Gupta, the first Hindu on the 
Council of India; Romesh Dutt, the Hindu on the Decentralization Commission; 
Mr. Sinha, the first native member of the Executive Council of the governor-general 
of India; Mr. Bipin Chandra Pal; Mr. Krishna Varma; Mr. Jogendra Nath Bose, 
the editor of the Bangabasi, the first paper prosecuted for sedition (1891); Ajit Singh 
and Lajapat Rai, the deportees of 1907; and Arabinda Ghose. — S. M. Mitra "Analysis 
of Indian Unrest," Fortnightly Review, XCV (1911), 146-147. 

2 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), col. 93. 

3 Voice of India, V (1886), 4. 



THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 143 

to the delegates, met some twenty of them at a private interview, and 
talked with the president, Dadabhai Naoroji, separately. In 1890 1 Lord 
Lansdowne took the step of removing the interdict on the attendance of 
members of the civil service as visitors and spectators. 

The government was not, however, prepared for the vigorous pressing 
by the Congress for the fulfillment of its program, and the official attitude 
speedily changed to one of tolerant suspicion, if not of antagonism. 
In a celebrated speech at Calcutta on November 1, 1888, Lord Dufferin 
said after a description of the relative fewness of the educated or Congress 
element in the population of India: 

How could any reasonable man imagine that the British government 
would be content to allow this microscopic minority to control the adminis- 
tration of that majestic and multiform empire for whose safety and welfare 
they are responsible in the eyes of God and before the face of civilization ? 
It appears to me a groundless contention that it represents the people of India. 
Is it not evident that large sections Of the community are already becoming 
alarmed at the thought of such self-constituted bodies interposing between 
themselves and the august impartiality of English rule ? 2 

In 1904 3 Lord Curzon displayed the same attitude by refusing to 
receive the resolution of the Congress at the hands of its president, Sir 
Henry Cotton, though for his own sake he expressed willingness to meet 
him personally, and insisted that the custom of sending the messages to 
the government be followed. 

In 1907 even the liberal John Morley wrote the following: 
A prominent cause of the unrest among the educated Hindus is the Indian 
National Congress movement. This association was started in 1885, and 
has held an annual meeting ever since in various parts of India. While it has 
given the loyal an opportunity of discussing the needs of India and of expressing 
their political aspirations, it has also served as a center for the disaffected and 
the tendency has increased for the tone of the latter to dominate the proceed- 
ings of the whole. The members are practically self-elected and include all 
who have time, money, and inclination to travel to the annual place of meeting 
and who are in no sense the authoritative representatives of even the educated 
class. If the Congress had devoted its energies to social amelioration, to 
female education, to the extension of elementary education among the masses, 
to the development of trade and commerce, much good might have been 
effected. Its aims, unfortunately, have been almost exclusively set upon 
weakening the very government which has secured peace and growing prosper- 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), col. 73. 

2 Ibid., col. 90. 

3 Bombay Gazette (weekly), January 14, 1905, p. 4, col. 1. 



144 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

ity for all India. The repeal of the Arms Act, which the Congress advocates, 
would multiply beyond measure crimes of violence, whether due to robbery, 
to private hate, or to political conspiracy. 1 

English opinion of the Indian National Congress has been much the 
same throughout. The Liberals have mildly approved, the Radicals 
have applauded, and participated, and the Conservatives have frowned 
with suspicion. Mr. Samuel Smith represents the liberal opinion saying: 

For several years great representative assemblies have been held in India 
under the name of the Indian National Congress. Every one who has read 
the proceedings of that body will allow that for wisdom, moderation, and 
loyalty, they would do credit to this Parliament itself, or to any legislative 
assembly in the world. Now, Sir, this National Indian Congress is a very 
great political factor, a factor of the first magnitude; it cannot be ignored. 
It has raised in the most moderate and constitutional manner serious demands, 
and the principal of these — it may be said to lie at the basis of all the others — 
is one for elective representation in the great councils of India. That is a 
loyal and constitutional demand which we must deal with sympathetically 
if we wish to retain the good will of the large body of the people of India. 
Unless we do so, we are preparing for ourselves a time of trouble in India, 
when seditious agitation may take the place of constitutional action. 2 

The more radical view is represented by the following contemporary 
English estimate of the Congress in 1885: 

The importance of the meeting cannot be estimated by the numbers who 
attended it. It must be the first time that an attempt has been made to 
obtain united political action from the various races and religions which 
make up the people of our great Indian dependency. It was the beginning of a 
movement which our generation will not see the end of, but which must be 
fraught with momentous consequences for England and India alike. Whether 
they shall prove alike happy for both lands or shall be disastrous to either or to 
both depends upon' the wisdom, patience, and forbearance, which are mutually 
practised. 3 

In the same tone is also the following of 1886: 

Now, this Congress is to my mind one of the most extraordinary occurrences 
that are to be found during the period of British rule in India. Many may 
dislike it, but it would be the merest folly to underrate its profound importance. 
It is like the handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar's palace. It shows that the 
time has passed when the paternal despotism we have hitherto maintained in 
India could satisfy the new life and the new desires which the English language 

1 "Signs of the Times in India," Edinburgh Review, CCVI (July-Oct., 1907), 292. 

2 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. I (1892), cols. 82-83. 

3 R. S. Watson, op. cit., pp. 89-90. 



THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 145 

and English literature have breathed into the population. The voices which 
tell us of this great fact are altogether friendly. The debt of gratitude is 
freely admitted, and they only call upon us to worthily complete the work 
which has been begun. It rests with the people and their leaders in this 
country to determine the character of the response that shall be given to the 
appeal thus made from India. 1 

Representing the conservative attitude the Times in 1886 said: 
The first question which this series of resolutions will suggest is whether 
India is ripe for the transformation which they involve. If this can be answered 
in the affirmative the days of English rule are numbered. If India can govern 
itself our stay in the country is no longer called for. All we have to do is to 
preside over the construction of the new system and then leave it to work. 
The lawyers and schoolmasters and newspaper editors will step into the vacant 
place and will conduct affairs with no help from us. Those who know India 
best will be the first to recognize the absurd impracticability of such a change. 
But it is to nothing less than this that the resolutions of the Congress point. 
If they were carried out the result would soon be that very little would remain 
to England except the liability which we should have assumed for the entire 

Indian debt 2 

Do what we will the government of India cannot be made constitutional. 
The educated classes may find fault with their exclusion from full political 
rights. Political privileges they can obtain in the degree to which they prove 
themselves deserving of them. But it was by force that India was won, and 
it is by force that India must be governed, in whatever hands the government 
of the country may be vested. If we were to withdraw it would be in favor, 
not of the most fluent tongue or the most ready pen, but the strongest arm 
and the sharpest sword. It would perhaps be well for the members of the late 
Congress to reconsider their position from this practical point of view. 

Less restrained is this opinion of seven years later. 

The Congress craze, with the contemplated wholesale creation of native 
functionaries for posts hitherto held by Europeans, and the wholesale reduc- 
tion of British troops, is more deplorable even than this opium folly. And not 
only is it deplorable but the English Parliamentarians who support it are 
thereby convicted of glaring inconsistency; for whereas they complain in this 
country of a "caste" ascendancy, which is merely a figure of speech assumed 
for purposes of political chicanery, they are, in supporting the Congress, 
supporting the most rigid and barbarous "caste" ascendancy the world has 
ever seen in its efforts to recover its lost position. Apart from the Brahminical 
element the Congress is not even a skeleton, it is nothing but a shadow. These 

'John Slagg, "The National Indian Congresses," Nineteenth Century Review, 
XIX (1886), 710. 

2 Hindu, January 16, 1908, p. 1, col. 1. 



146 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

Brahmins do not represent India, but merely Brahminism, which is a very 
different thing. Before the comparative freedom which has followed on the 
imposition of English rule, the Brahmins were the hereditary priests and 
judges and law-makers of the land, and all the castes below them they ruled 

with a rod of iron [It is] ... . just at the time too when they are 

clamoring for the abolishment of so-called "castes" at home, that certain 
inconsistent Gladstonians are helping forward with all their might and main a 
movement to rivet once more the chains of Brahminism upon the helots of 
India, by handing over to that sect supreme control of the civil and judicial 
administration. This in plain words is what the Congress demands would 
mean if complied with — the resumption by the Brahminical caste of the control 
of the law and its administration, and the administration of that law in the 
interests of Brahminism, and not of the Indian people as a whole. 1 

One of the interesting minor and abortive developments of the spirit 
that produced the Congress was a movement, during the latter half of 
the eighties and first half of the nineties, on the part of Indians to seek 
seats in Parliament. 

The first attempt was that of Lai Mohan Ghose, 2 an educated 
Bengali, later the president of the Madras Congress of 1903. The 
Liberals of Deptford chose him as their candidate in the general election 
of 1885. He was beaten 3,560 to 3,927, or a majority of 367 votes. 

Lai Mohan Ghose tried again in the general election of 1886 in 
company with Dadabai Naoroji, a Parsi of Bombay, "The Grand Old 
Man of India," of the period of later agitation. Deptford Liberals 
again nominated Mr. Ghose, and Mr. Naoroji stood for the Liberals in 
Holburs. Both were beaten. 

Mr. Naoroji made another trial 3 in the general election of 1892 and 
was elected by the Gladstonians of Central Finsbury, by a majority of 
three, over Captain Penton. Aside from a graceful speech on the occa- 
sion of the debates on the address to the Crown, Mr. Naoroji played but 
little part, largely no doubt because the Indian Councils Act of 1892 had 
returned Parliament to its somnolence as far as India was concerned. 

Mr. Naoroji ended the movement. The course of events turned 
the political aspirations to India itself, where, if glory was less, the newly 
constituted Provincial Legislative and the Imperial Legislative Councils 
afforded a cheaper and more prominent prospect of success. English 
opinion too was none too favorable to the practice. 

1 English Opinion on India, N.S., II (1893-94), 354-55- "Brahmins, the Congress 
and the Radicals," The Bradford Daily Organ, February 6, 1894. 

2 Voice of India, IV (1886), 300-301. 

3 London Times, July 30, 1892, p. 9, col. 4; ibid., July 22, 1892, p. 7, col. 2. 



THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 147 

W. H. Gregory wrote in the Nineteenth Century in 1886: 
There is one matter for congratulation, and that is the signal defeat of those 
natives of India whose ambition fired them with the desire of entering the 
English Parliament. The time may come when India and our colonies may 
send representatives to England with mutual advantage, but how that is to 
be effected is still in the uncertain future. We do not require Indians to throw 
themselves into our political struggles and to pronounce their opinions either 
on home questions or our foreign policy, neither is it advisable that Indian 
affairs should be made the football as it were of party conflict. 1 

The question of whether the Congress faithfully represents the view 
of India is of the same piece with the question as to how far the educated 
classes of India can be regarded as representative of India and entitled 
to speak for the masses. 

Neither the census reports on the one hand nor the political literature, 
on the other, are reliable gauges. It is probably, for the present genera- 
tion, an impossibility to see the educated classes in their right relations 
to the rest of the country. 

The assumption that the interest of the ryot must be confided to 
official hands is strenuously denied by modern educated Indians. 2 
They claim that the European official must, by his lack of imagination 
and comparative lack of skill in tongues, be gravely handicapped in 
interpreting the thoughts and desires of an Asiatic people. 

Against this it is argued that, in the limited spread of education, 
the endurance of caste exclusiveness and of usages sanctioned by caste, 
and in the records of some local bodies, may be found reasons which 
suggest that the politically minded classes stand apart from it and in 
advance of the ordinary life of the country and have no right to speak for 
the inarticulate millions whose wants are exceedingly few and whose 
limited horizon encompasses none of the political demands vociferated 
by the Congress. And there is much color for the English conservative 
assertions 3 that 

the Congress party 4 is not only very small in proportion but it is not even 
representative of the people as a whole. The native aristocracy stands aloof 

1 W. H. Gregory, "Loyalty of the Indian Mohammedans," Nineteenth Century 
Review, XX (1886), 889. 

2 " Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, p. 116. East India, 1918. 

3 A. Sawatell, "The Political Situation in India, " Proceedings of the Royal Colonial 
Institute, XXXVII (1905-6), 296. 

4 In 1892 Sir Richard Temple even went so far as to say in Parliament regarding 
the Congress party, "They have no influence at all among the masses of the people. 
They are looked upon as semi-foreigners with perhaps few of their merits. They are 
not popular." — Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), col. 100. 



148 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

from its activities, and the masses of the people are necessarily indifferent. 
"Young India" as it manifests itself in the Congress propaganda is pursuing 
aims in which the vast majority of the people feel no concern. The Indian 
people as a whole ask only to be governed, not to govern themselves. They 
are silent and unmoved by this superficial wave of what has been termed 
political unrest. They form the mile-and-mile depth of the calm water of 
the ocean of Hindu humanity which the surface waves can never stir into 
action. 

Against these views the educated Indians contend that 

there can be no greater mistake than to imagine that the influence of this 
class [educated] in the country is proportional only to its numbers. In the 
first place, these men constitute what may be called the brain of the com- 
munity. They do the thinking, not only for themselves but also for their 
ignorant brethren. 

Moreover, theirs is the Indian press— both English and vernacular — 
and the vernacular press shapes the thoughts and sways the feelings not only 
of the fifteen million "literates in vernaculars" whom it reaches directly, but 
also many more millions who come indirectly under its influence. And what- 
ever public opinion exists in the country reflects almost entirely the views of 
the educated classes. 

The officials sometimes look to old historic families which in more turbulent 
times supplied leaders to the country to exert a rival influence; but they have 
now lost their former hold on the public mind, because in these days of peace 
and of transition, rusty broken swords cannot compete with ideas in impor- 
tance and power. The influence of the educated classes with their country- 
men is thus already very great and is bound every day to grow greater and 
greater. 1 

1 G. K. Gokahle, "Self-Government for India," Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly 
Review, 3d Ser., XXII (1906), 235. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 

The preliminaries of the Indian Councils Act of 1892 
Reasons for the act 

The demands of the educated and the Congress 

The consciousness of the need of readjustments in the machinery of 
government 
Lord Dufferin's proposals 
The course of the passage of the Indian Councils Act of 1892 
The introduction of the bill in 1890 
The crowding out of the bill in 1890 and 1891 
The passage of the bill, 1892 
The debate 

The proposed amendment requiring the elective system 
Outline of the rules for carrying out its provisions 
The important provisions 

The enlarged legislative councils 
The Imperial Council 
The provincial councils 
The allowing of increased discussion of the budget 
The concession of the right of interpellation 
Estimate of the Indian Councils Act of 1892 
The Punjab and the Burma Councils Acts of 1897 

Out of the transformation going on in the native world, the growth 
of the educated class, and all the forces which had contributed to bring 
to birth the Indian National Congress came another series of reforms. 
This time it was Parliament that was called upon to act and, moreover, 
a conservative Parliament that finally passed the measures. The laws 
passed at the initiative of Lord Ripon had carried the political develop- 
ment as far as it was legally possible for any legislative body in India to 
do, and had been made elastic enough to accommodate such local political 
development as was taking place. It was in the larger fields of the 
provincial and imperial governments that the pressure of the government 
was felt to be ill distributed. 

It is of the greatest significance that in the new proposals native 
demands for the first time seem to have been a perceptible influence. 
It would be too much to say that the reforms of 1892 were brought about 
by the Congress or the educated classes, but there is a singular similarity 

149 



150 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

to the proposals of that body and the measures finally adopted. At the 
very first session of the Indian National Congress (1885) the third resolu- 
tion in the list urged a reform of the legislative councils. 

K. T. Toland, of the Bombay Legislative Council, in speaking on the 
resolution, 1 asserted that the Punjab and the Northwestern Provinces 
and Oudh ought to have legislative councils, and the others ought to be 
reformed in the matter of appointments. His praise of Ripon for calling 
Babu Kristodas Pal and Mr. Pyari Mohan Mukerji indicates that the 
type of member advocated was the educated rather than princes and 
large landowners. He urged that at least one-half of the members 
should be elected. He went on to suggest as constituencies municipal 
corporations, chambers of commerce, the universities, well-established 
political associations, and the rural and municipal boards. He also 
advocated an extension of the budget discussion to more than the new 
measures of taxation to which Lord Northbrook had restricted it. He 
proposed the right of interpellation as well as giving the government an 
opportunity for quieting discontent by explanations and affording means 
of drawing attention to abuses. He said, moreover, in important cases 
there was needed a right to send protests to the House of Commons. 

S. S. Iyer, of the Madras Legislative Council, also in the First Indian 
National Congress on the same resolution, said : 

The actual working of these councils is enveloped in somewhat of a mys- 
tery and to one outside of it it is a puzzle how it is that the non-official members 

are so little able to do good of any kind It was not till I myself became 

a member of the Madras Council that I saw how unjustly our friends in the 
Council were censured in the majority of instances and what little influence they 

possessed in the Council either for good or for evil The misfortune is 

that these non-official members are not allowed to feel any responsibility, and 
even if one of them assume it, no opportunity is given them to render them- 
selves useful. 2 

He went on to say they never possessed a representative character and 
were so worked as to render them by no means efficient even as exponents 
of official opinion. 

The functions of these councils are limited to registering the decrees of the 
executive government and stamp them with legislative sanction 

I am sceptical whether any material good will result from these councils, 
so long as the present system of the executive settling beforehand for all prac- 
tical purposes and in an irrevocable manner the principle of all measures that 
are introduced into these councils is maintained. 

1 Proceedings of the Indian National Congress, 1885, p. 28. 2 Ibid., pp. 31, 32. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 151 

There was, he said, no difficulty in getting suggestions adopted if 
they related only to details, and he concluded : 

I must do the government justice to say that not only are they anxious 
to hear non-official opinion but they also try to adopt it as far as possible 
consistent with the principle of the measure. 

It should not be overlooked, however, that in the same year, 1885 
Lord Robert Churchill in introducing the Indian budget 1 promised a full 
administrative reform of India, a fact which shows that the Indian 
government had itself perceived the need for readjustment. It would 
seem, however, that the Congress at least indicated the channel through 
which the purpose of the government should take its expression. 

The reform proposals were given their first tentative public form 
when, in 1887 at Calcutta, Lord Dufferin delivered a speech on the occa- 
sion of the Queen's Jubilee expressing the desirability of reconstituting 
the legislative councils and enlarging their functions. 

He sent home in November, 1888, a dispatch containing more 
definite proposals for which he said: 

I do not mean that votes should be taken in regard to the various items of 
the budget or that the heads of expenditure should be submitted in detail for 
the examination of the Council but simply that an opportunity should be 
given for a full, free, and thorough criticism and examination of the financial 
policy of the government. Some such change as this would, I think, be as 
beneficial to the Indian administration as it would be in accordance with the 
wishes of the European and native mercantile world of India. At present the 
government is exposed to every kind of misapprehension and misrepresentation 
in regard to the figures and the statement of their results. Were the matter to 
be gone into thoroughly and exhaustively on the occasion I suggest by inde- 
pendent critics who, however anxious to detect a flaw and prove the govern- 
ment wrong, would be masters of their subject and cognisant of the intricacies 
of Indian administration, the result would be more advantageous to the financial 
reputation of the Indian government as well as more conducive to improve 
her financial system than the perfunctory debates of the House of Commons 
and the imperfect criticism of Indian finances by some English newspapers. 2 

Lord Lansdowne took up the function of the viceroyalty in 1888. 
He proceeded to consult the local governments with results which he 
thus formulated: 3 

Our communications with the local governments disclosed a certain 
amount of variety of opinion, although the divergence was within compara- 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), col. 94. 2 Ibid., cols. 55-56. 

3 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXXII 
(1893), 102-3. 



152 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

tively narrow limits He found a complete consensus of opinion on the 

part of all local governments consulted in favour of the view that the councils 
might with advantage be enlarged and that it was desirable to increase their 
authority and to give them a constitution under which they would be able to 
afford to the provincial governments a larger measure of assistance and support. 

There was another point upon which the consensus of opinion of the local 
governments was equally noticeable. It was felt by all of them that what was 
desirable was to improve the present councils rather than to attempt to put 
in their place bodies comprising a large number of persons and possessing the 
attributes of parliamentary assemblies of the European type. 

These proposals were finally formulated into a bill which ultimately 
became the Indian Councils Act of 1892. It experienced, however, a checkered 
career. It 1 was introduced in the first instance in the House of Lords in 1890. 2 
It was then read a second time, and went through the ordeal of a committee. 
At the suggestion of Lord Northbrook and Lord Herschell, certain amendments 
were made in the bill, to which the Lords agreed and passed it on to the Com- 
mons, where, however, the pressure of business prevented it from being passed 
through either in that year or in 1891, although on July 21, 1890, it almost 
came up on the orders of the day. It was dropped on August 5. 

The following are the important sections of the Indian Councils 
Act of 1892 : 3 

I. (i) 4 The number of additional members of Council nominated by the 
governor-general under the provisions of Section 10 of the Indian Councils 
Act, 1861, shall be such as to him may seem from time to time expedient, 
but shall not be less than ten nor more than sixteen, and the number of addi- 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 3d Ser., Vol. CCCXLVII, 1891, cols. 361, 1996. 

2 The noteworthy event in connection with the course of the bill during the session 
of 1890 was the introduction on February 12 of an amendment bill by Mr. Bradlaugh. 
As was to be expected from its authorship, it was a radical measure providing for a 
much larger electorate and more extensive powers for the councils than the government 
bill. Mr. Bradlaugh introduced a similar bill in the next session but his death 
terminated whatever slim prospects his ideals had of being realized, or even seriously 
considered when the Indian Councils Act finally reached the stage of actual debate in 
1892. It is to be noted, however, that both of Mr. Bradlaugh's bills were based 
to a considerable extent on the recommendations of the special committee of the 
Congress. — Parliamentary Debates, passim, 1890, 1891; Report of the Indian National. 
Congress, 1891-93, Appendix II, p. liii. 

3 February 9: Lord Cross presented the bill; read first time. February 15: 
read second time; both Liberals and Conservatives unite to press the bill. February 
19: bill reported. February 22: read third time and sent to Commons. February 22: 
read first time in Commons. March 28: read second time and committee. April 
11: committee reported. April 25: committee reported. May 6: committee 
reported. May 26: read third time and passed. June 20: royal assent. — Parliamen- 
tary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. I (1892). See Index. 

4 P. Mukherji, Indian Constitutional Documents, 1773-IQ15, pp. 184-88. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 153 

tional members of Council nominated by the governors of the presidencies of 
Fort St. George and Bombay respectively under the provisions of Section 29 
of the Indian Councils Act of 1861, shall [besides the advocate-general of the 
presidency or officer acting in that capacity] be such as to the said governors 
respectively may seem from time to time expedient, but shall not be less than 
eight nor more than twenty. 

(2) It shall be lawful for the governor-general in council by proclamation 
from time to time to increase the number of councillors whom the lieutenant 
governors of the Bengal Division of the presidency of Fort William and of 
the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh respectively may nominate for their 
assistance in making laws and regulations: Provided always, that not more 
than twenty shall be nominated for the Bengal Division, and not more than 
fifteen for the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh. 

(3) Any person resident in India may be nominated an additional member 
of Congress under Sections 10 and 29 of the Indian Councils Act, 1861, and 
this Act, or a member of the Council of the lieutenant-governor of any province 
to which the provision of the Indian Councils Act, 1861, touching the making 
of laws and regulations, have been or are extended or made applicable. 

(4) The governor-general in council may from time to time, with the 
approval of the secretary of state in council, make regulations as to the condi- 
tions under which such nominations, or any of them, shall be made by the 
governor-general, governors, and lieutenant governors respectively, and pre- 
scribe the manner in which such regulations shall be carried into effect. 

V. The local legislature of any province in India may from time to time? 
by acts passed under and subject to the provisions of the Indian Councils Act, 
1 86 1, and with the previous sanction of the governor-general but not other- 
wise, repeal or amend as to that province any law or regulation made either 
before or after the passing of this Act by any authority in India other than 
that local legislature. Provided that an act or a provision of an act made by 
a local legislature, and subsequently assented to by the governor-general in 
pursuance of the Indian Councils Act, 1861, shall not be deemed invalid by 
reason only of its requiring the previous sanction of the governor-general under 
this section. 

The rules framed under the Indian Councils Act of 1892 were delayed 
by a difference of opinion between the secretary of state and the govern- 
ment of India as to whether officials should be ineligible for election 
or, to use the strictly correct term, for "recommendation." The rule 
against their re-eligibility was finally dropped and the rules issued. 

The regulations authorized by this act were embodied in No. 19 
dated June 23, 1893, 1 of the General Statutory Rules and Orders. The 

1 General Statutory Rules and Orders, I (1907), 14 et seq. Cited from the Gazette 
of India, 1897, Part I, p. 345. 



154 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

most important provisions dealt with the three main aspects of the 
changes. Regarding the composition of the bodies it was prescribed 
that not more than six of the additional members of the Legislative 
Council should be officials. One each of four seats in that body was to 
be filled respectively by the nominations by a majority vote of the 
Legislative Councils of Madras, Bombay, Bengal, the Northwestern 
Provinces, and Oudh, and one by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce. 
The remaining seats were to be filled by the governor-general at his 
discretion. 

The second section of the regulations laid down the procedure for 
the discussion of the budget. The financial statement was to be printed 
and explained every year. Any member was thereupon at liberty to 
offer such observations as he chose, and the financial member had the 
right of reply. 

The third group of rules ordained the limitations set on the right of 
interpellation. At least six days' notice in writing was required in each 
case, unless the governor-general made an exception. The interrogations 
were to be framed as simple requests for information and argumentative 
hypothetical or defamatory forms were proscribed. The governor- 
general might disallow any question without giving any reason. No 
discussion of the answer was permitted. 

As indicated, there were three outstanding elements in the reforms 
accomplished by the India Councils Act of 1892 and the regulations 
framed under them. They were: (1) the enlargement of the legislative 
councils, with a tacit proviso for the introduction of the elective principle 
where feasible; (2) the extension of the budget discussion to include the 
annual budget, and not merely new measures of taxation; (3) the grant- 
ing of the right of interpellation to a limited extent. 1 

The intention of the statute of 186 1 was that local councils gradually 
be established in all the provinces of India. As a matter of fact, however, 
it had been found possible to establish a local legislature only in four. 
In addition to Madras and Bombay, Bengal had been given a legislative 
council in 1862 and the Northwestern Provinces in 1886. The result 
was that any new law or rule which was required for any province other 
than Madras, Bombay, Bengal, and the Northwestern Provinces had 
still to be sanctioned by the Supreme Legislative Council sitting usually 
three or four months in the year, and almost exclusively at Calcutta. 

The act of 1892 2 made the following changes in the Supreme and 
Provincial Councils. The Supreme Legislative Council consisted, in 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), cols. 61-62. * Ibid., Loc. cit. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 155 

addition to the ex-officio members who numbered seven, of a minimum 
of six and a maximum of twelve nominated members of whom half must 
be non-official. The bill raised the minimum to ten and the maximum 
to sixteen. In the Madras and Bombay councils formerly consisting 
(independently of their four ex-officio members) of a minimum of four 
and a maximum of eight nominated members of whom half were non- 
official, the minimum was raised to eight and the maximum to twenty. 

In the Northwestern Provinces the number was nine, of which one- 
third were also non-official, and under the bill the number was raised to 
fifteen. The object of these additions, as Lord Curzon stated it in 
Parliament, was by extending the area of the section in each case to add 
to the strength and representative character of the councils. 

He made a comparison with Mr. Bradlaugh's bill saying: 

The late Mr. Bradlaugh, who at different times introduced two bills 
dealing with the reform of the Indian councils into this House, proposed in 
those measures to swell the numbers on these councils to quite impracticable 
and unmanageable proportions. Under his first bill their totals would have 
amounted to more than 260 and under the second to more than 230. It is 
within the knowledge of everyone who is acquainted with India that the number 
of persons who are competent and willing to take part in the functions of these 
councils is nothing like adequate to supply the extravagant expectations of 
those bills. 1 

It was upon the question of the introduction of the elective prin- 
ciple, however, that the real controversy over the bill raged. Lord 
Curzon thus stated the government's opinion and expectations. He said : 

Every year the number of native gentlemen in India who are both quali- 
fied and willing to take part in the work of government is increasing, and every 
year the advantage of their co-operation increases in the same ratio. More 
especially in the case of the provincial councils, it has been found that more 
effective means are needed of re-enforcing native and non-official opinion. 
The government believe that this moderate addition which they propose to 
the numbers will have the effect which I contemplate, and at the same time 
that it will be compatible with efficiency. This House does not need to be 
told by me that the efficiency of a deliberative body is not necessarily commen- 
surate with its numerical strength. We have instances in this country of public 
bodies prevented from working well in consequence of the large number of their 
members. Over-large bodies do not necessarily work well. They do not 
promote economical administration but are apt to diffuse their force in vague 
and vapid talk, and if this be true of deliberative bodies in England, it is more 
true of deliberative bodies in a country like India. I hold in fact that it would 

1 Ibid., col. 62. 



156 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

be better that competent men shall be left outside than that incompetent men 
should be included. Now we will look at the question of how these additional 
members are to be appointed. I notice that the "honorable" member for North 
Manchester [Mr. Schwann] has placed on the paper an amendment declaring 
that no reform of the Indian councils which does not embody the elective 
principle will prove satisfactory. But in reply I should like to point out that 
our bill does not exclude some such principle, be the method election or selec- 
tion, or delegation, or whatever be the particular phrase that you desire to 
employ J 

Under this act it would be in the power of the viceroy to invite representa- 
tive bodies in India to elect or select or delegate representatives of themselves 
and of their opinions to be nominated to those Houses and thus by slow degrees 
by tentative measures, and in a matter like this, measures cannot be otherwise 
than tentative, we may perhaps approximate in some way to the ideal which 
the honorable member from North Manchester has in view. With respect 
to the character of such bodies and associations as those to which I have 
alluded, I may mention only as indicating what may be possible, such bodies 
as the well-known association of the zamindars of Bengal, the chambers of 
commerce of India, the municipalities of the great cities, the universities 
the British India Association, and perhaps even more important than any, the 
various great religious denominations in that country. I believe that the 
House will hold that this method of dealing with the question is a wise method, 
since it leaves the initiative to those who are necessarily best acquainted with 
the matter and does not lay down any hard-and-fast rule by which they may 
find themselves unfortunately bound. I cannot myself conceive anything 
more unfortunate than that this House should draw up and send out to India 
a cast-iron elective scheme within the four walls of which the government 
would find itself confined, and which, if it proved at some future period inade- 
quate or unsuitable, it would be impossible to alter without coming back to 
this House and experiencing all the obstacles and delays of parliamentary 
procedure in this country 2 

The honorable member^ [Mr. Schwann] for instance is anxious to have the 
elective principle more clearly defined and more systematically enforced, and 
he has placed an amendment on the paper, in which he asks the House to 
signify its opinion that no reform of the Indian councils which does not embody 
the elective principle will be satisfactory to the Indian people or will be com- 
patible with the good government of India. I venture to say, Sir, that this 
amendment is vitiated by a twofold fallacy, for, while in the first place the 
honorable member affects to speak on behalf of the Indian people, he at 
the same time entirely ignores the primary conditions of Indian life. When the 
honorable member assumes in this House to be the mouthpiece of the people of 
India, I must emphatically decline to accept his credentials in that capacity. 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), cols. 62-63. 

2 Ibid., col. 64. 3 Ibid., cols. 65-66. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 157 

No system of representation that has ever been devised, no system of repre- 
sentation that the ingenuity of the honorable member can suggest, no system of 
representation that would stand the test of twenty-four hours' operation would 
in the most infinitesimal degree represent the people of India. Who are the 
people of India? The people of India are the voiceless millions who can 
neither read nor write their own tongues, who have no knowledge whatever of 
English, who are not perhaps universally aware of the fact that the English 
are in their country as rulers. The people of India are the ryots and the 
peasants, whose life is not one of political aspiration, but of mute penury and 
toil. The plans and policy of the Congress party in India would leave this 
vast amorphous residium absolutely untouched. I do not desire to speak in 
any other than terms of respect of the Congress party of India. That party 
contains a number of intelligent, liberal-minded, and public spirited men, who 
undoubtedly represent that portion of the Indian people who have profited 
by the educational advantages placed at their doors, and which is more or less 
involved with European ideas; but as to their relationship to the people of 
India, the constituency which the Congress party represent cannot be described 
as otherwise than a minute and almost microscopic minority of the total popula- 
tion of India. At the present time the population of British India is 221,000,000; 
and of that number it has been calculated that not more than 3 or 4 per cent 
can read or write any one of their native tongues; considerably less than 

1 per cent — about one-fourth or one-third — can read or write English 

There are two main objects which this House is entitled to require in any 
new legislation for India. 1 Firstly, that it should add to, and in no sense impair, 
the efficiency of government; and secondly that it should also promote the 
interests of the governed. 

Mr. Schwann, representing the more radical Liberals, was undaunted 
by Curzon's tirade and persisted in begging to move as an amendment 
"That in the opinion of this House no reform of the Indian councils 
which does not embody the elective principle will prove satisfactory to 
the Indian people or compatible with the good government of 
India. . . . ." 

"I repeat 2 that I hope that it will not be accepted by this House," 
he continued, "as it certainly will not be accepted by the Indian people 
as anything like even an instalment of what they desire, of what they 
require and what is necessary for their happiness. The fact is that the 
Bill contains, it seems to me, but a very slight trace of the elective 
principle." 

He also contended that the Indian people had to a very large extent 
attained to a clear idea of nationality, through the instrumentality of the 

1 Ibid., col. 68. 2 Ibid., cols. 69-77. 



158 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

English language, of commerce, of education, of a free press, and the 
right of free meeting. 

He dilated at some length on the Congress, municipalities, etc., as 
evidence that India was ready for and entitled to the elective system. 
Gladstone, however, followed Mr. Schwann and poured oil on the 
troubled waters by saying: 

I desire to put on the speeches that we have heard on the Bill, not the most 
hostile but the least hostile and least controversial construction to which they 
are susceptible. Now, Sir, while the language of the Bill cannot be said to 
embody the elective principle, it is in its language very peculiar indeed 

Unless it was intended to leave room for some peculiarities not as yet 
introduced in the Indian system in the appointment of the members of the 
Indian councils under this Bill, it would have been a very singular form of 
speech to provide not simply that the governor-general might nominate, but 
that he might make regulations as to the conditions under which such nomina- 
tions or any of them might be made, either by himself or by the governor- 
general in council 

[Lord Curzon's speech] appeared to me, I confess, to distinctly embody 
what is not very different from the assertion of my honorable friend in his 
amendment, except as to this important point — that the under secretary pro- 
poses to leave everything to the judgment, the discretion, and the responsibility 
of the governor-general of India and the authorities in India. 1 

Mr. Gladstone 2 went on to approve the granting of discretion as to 
form, but regretted the omission of a statement of principles. Com- 
menting on Mr. Schwann's speech, he said: 

But merely intellectual education which does not touch the morals, man- 
ners, or habits of a people cannot change their character or give them that 
sobriety and robustness of disposition which is essential to the smooth and 
even working of representative institutions. 

After some further bickering the amendment was finally withdrawn, 3 
but with a feeling on the part of some which was expressed by the Earl 
of Kimberly in these words : 

I am bound to say that I and some of our friends would have preferred that 
the possibility of election being one of the modes of presenting these persons to 
be nominated by the Council was more explicitly recognized in the Bill than 
it is ; but at the same time, I very well know the difficulties which there may 
be in carrying through a bill of this kind. I regard it as essentially a tentative 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), col. 79. 

2 Ibid., cols. 79-84. 

3 Ibid., col. 131. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 159 

measure, and being so I am quite willing to welcome it, although it opens the 
door, perhaps, in a very slight manner apparently on the face of it. What we 
really desire is that in this matter the government of India should be able to 
exercise their own discretion on the spot as to the extent to which they may 
think it wise to advance in the direction that is desired. 1 

Curzon was faithful to his promise and on June 30, 1892, wrote to 
the government of India: 

It appears to me probable, nevertheless, that the diffusion in the more 
advanced provinces of education and enlightened public spirit and the recent 
organization of local self-government may have provided in some instances 
ways and means of which the government may appropriately avail themselves 
in determining the character that shall be given to the representation of the 
views of the different races, classes, and localities. Where corporations have 
been established with definite powers upon a recognized administrative basis 
or where associations have been formed upon a substantial community of 
legitimate interests, professional, commercial, or territorial, Your Excellency 
and the local governor may find convenience or advantage in consulting from 
time to time such bodies and in entertaining at your discretion an expression 
of their views and recommendations with regard to the selection of members 
in whose qualifications they may be disposed to confide. 2 

In India, Lord Lansdowne received the proposals in the same spirit. 
He, on the occasion of introducing the new regulations, said: 

I should like at this stage to dwell upon the fact that the government of 
India, ever since I have had the honor of being connected with it, while it has 
insisted upon the ultimate responsibility of the government for these nomina- 
tions has constantly urged that any bill which might be passed should render 
it possible for the governor-general and for the heads of the local governments 
to have recourse to the advice of what for want of any more convenient expres- 
sion I will describe as "suitable constituencies"! 

1 will venture to quote to the Council an extract from a dispatch sent 
home by us as long ago as the twenty-fourth of December, 1889, in which we 
placed on record our opinion that it would be "well that the measure about to 
be laid before Parliament should not control, should not absolutely preclude 
us from resort to some form of election where the local conditions are such as 
to justify. a belief that it might be safely and advantageously adopted." 

We went on to say that "we should have been glad if the Bill had reserved 
to us authority to make rules from time to time for the appointment of addi- 
tional members, by nomination or otherwise" and we should have considered 

I Ibid., col. 415. 

2 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXXII 
(1893), 104. 



160 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

it sufficient if the consent of Your Lordship in Council had been made a condi- 
tion precedent to the validity of such rules. Such an enactment would have 
provided for the gradual and tentative introduction of a carefully guarded 
mode of electing additional members 

Upon a careful review of the whole matter and of the contents of the Act, 
as well as of the circumstances under which it had been introduced and passed 
into law, it appeared to us that the mandate under which we were called upon 
to act might be summarized in the four following propositions: 

i. It is not expected of us that we shall attempt to create in India a 
complete or symmetrical system of representation. 

2. It is expected of us that we shall make a bonafide endeavour to render 
the legislative councils more representative of the different sections of the 
Indian community than they are at present. 

3. For this purpose we are at liberty to make use of the machinery of elec- 
tion wherever there is a fair prospect that it will produce satisfactory results. 

4. Although we may to this extent apply the elective principle, it is to be 
clearly understood that the ultimate selection of all additional members rests 
with the government and not with the electors. The functions of the latter 
will be that of recommendation only, but of recommendation entitled to the 
greatest weight and not likely to be disregarded except in cases of the clearest 
necessity. 

I think the first observation which it would occur to anyone to make would 
be that, given legislative bodies of the dimensions prescribed for us or of any 
dimensions approaching to those laid down in the Act, it would be altogether 
hopeless to attempt the introduction of a representative system in the sense 
in which the words are understood in western communities. How, for instance, 
would it be possible in a province like that of Bengal with a population of 
seventy millions, to allot a handful of seats at our disposal so as to divide the 
country either in respect of geographical areas or in respect of the different 
communities which inhabit it, in such a manner as to distribute the representa- 
tion equitably or to make it really effectual ? And I am bound to admit that to 
the best of my belief even those who are credited with opinions of the most 
advanced type upon Indian political questions have carefully guarded them- 
selves against being supposed to claim for the people of India any system of 
representation closely initiating the parliamentary system of Western Europe. 

We are met, moreover, with this difficulty, that in many parts of India 
any system of election is entirely foreign to the feelings and habits of the 
people, and that were we to have recourse to such a system, the really repre- 
sentative men would probably not come forward under it 

It is in this light that the question has been considered and discussed by 
us with the local governments. We do not believe that the seats placed at 
our disposal can be distributed according to strict numerical proportion or 
upon a symmetrical and uniform system. We do not believe, to use Mr. 
Gladstone's words, that under the Act "large and imposing" results are to 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 161 

be at once obtained, but we do believe that, by having resort to sources other 
than the unassisted nomination of the government, we shall be able to obtain 
for these councils the services of members who will be in the truest sense repre- 
sentative, but who will represent types and classes rather than areas and 
numbers. 

We believe that it should not be beyond our power to secure in this manner 
for the government the advice and assistance of men connected with different 
parts of the country, thoroughly aware of the interests and wishes of their 
countrymen, and able to judge of the extent to which those interests are likely 
to be affected by any measure of legislation which may be proposed. If we can 
obtain men of this description, not by selecting them ourselves, but by allowing 
the great sections of the community a voice in the matter, we believe that the 
persons selected will bring to our deliberations a very much greater weight of 
authority than they would have possessed had we been content to rely upon 
nomination alone 

The government of India has from the first held that the reform of the 
viceroy's Council must to some extent be dependent upon and subsequent to 
that of the local councils. It seemed to us that if the difficulty of obtaining an 
effectual system of representation was great in the case of the local councils, it 
must, a fortiori, be greater still in the case of a council intrusted with the duty 
of legislating for the whole of India, and in our belief the strongest argument 
in favour of dealing in the first instance with the local legislatures was that 
we were likely to find in them, when they had been strengthened and reformed, 
the most convenient electoral bodies for the purpose of choosing a part at all 
events of the additional members who will be appointed to the Legislative 
Council of the viceroy. 

This view found much acceptance in Parliament. In his speech in the 
House of Lords on March 6, 1890, Lord Northbrook said: "For the present he 
would not be disposed to go farther in respect of the Supreme Council, except 
perhaps to allow a selection by each of the subordinate local legislatures." 

In the same debate Lord Ripon remarked that "he was glad to concur with 
his noble friend who had just spoken [Lord Northbrook] in the expression of a 
desire to see the elective or representative element introduced into those 
councils. If that step were taken it would be desirable to introduce the same 
element into the Council of the governor-general very likely in the manner 
suggested by selection from the local councils." 

"We have," he continued, "made a proposal of this kind to the secretary 
of state. The maximum number of additional members who can be nominated 
to the governor-general's Council is sixteen. Of these at least eight must, under 
the Act, be non-officials. We have recommended that there shall be ten non- 
officials. We have suggested that four of these might be selected and recom- 
mended to us by the local legislatures of the four provinces having local councils, 
that one at least would be required to represent the interests of commerce and 
that one might perhaps be chosen from the Calcutta Bar. We propose that 



162 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

the discretion of the viceroy with regard to the sources from which the remain- 
ing four might be obtained, should be interfered with as little as possible. 
There may be found in those provinces which do not possess legislative coun- 
cils certain classes and sections of the community so far accustomed to col- 
lective action in the promotion of their common interests that they would be 
qualified to unite in submitting a recommendation in respect of any seat which 
the governor-general may desire to fill up from a particular province, and we 
have been in communication with the governments of these provinces upon 
this subject. It is, however, clear that whatever arrangements may be made 
with this object should be as elastic as possible. We might, for example, find 
from time to time that the consideration of some particular measure requires 
the presence in this Council of a member specially conversant with the subject 
or with the territories which the contemplated legislation will effect, and this 
contingency must certainly be provided for in the case of those provinces 
which have no local legislatures, and for which such legislation as is required 
must be undertaken in the Council of the governor-general. We do not, 
therefore, in the case of these provinces see any necessity for such detailed 
rules for the submission of recommendation as have been proposed for the 
local councils. We shall, however, endeavour as far as possible in the event of 
a member being required for this Council from any of the four provinces not 
having local councils to give that member, by resorting as far as possible to the 
system of recommendations, a more representative character than would attach 

to him if he were arbitrarily selected by the head of the government 

"I have now explained, as far as is necessary, the procedure which will be 
followed in giving effect to both portions of the Indian Councils Act. It is 
not unlikely that our proposals will disappoint the expectations of those who 
would gladly see us travel farther and faster along the path of reform. We 
claim, however, for the changes which we have been instrumental in procuring 
that they will beyond all question greatly increase the usefulness and the 
authority of these legislative bodies. We are able to show that the number of 
additional members has been materially increased; that we have considerably 
widened the functions of the councils by the admission of the right of inter- 
pellation and the discussion of the financial statement; and finally, that we 
shall no longer rely on nomination pure and simple for the selection of addi- 
tional members. These are all substantial steps in advance. I hope the 
government of India will have the assistance of all concerned in carrying out 
the rules in such a way as to secure in the most effectual manner the 
objects with which they have been framed. It is highly probable that 
experience will suggest improvements in matters of detail, and I need not say 
m so far as we are not bound by the limits indicated in the Act, we shall be 
glad to consider the rules as to some extent experimental and tentative, and 
that we shall welcome any suggestions which may be offered to us for the 
purpose of making them work as satisfactorily as possible." 1 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXXII 
(1893), 105-11. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 163 

In a speech at the close of his viceroyalty, Lord Lansdowne said that 
it would 

be impossible to overrate the importance of infusing new life into these councils 
both by enlarging their functions and by modifying their constitution so as to 
include within them a certain number of members owing their appointments 
to the recommendation of other bodies rather than to nomination by the 
government. 1 

The parting words that he addressed to the Imperial Council were: 2 

I earnestly trust that this Council strengthened as it has lately been by 

the extension of its functions and by the addition^ to its ranks of a large number 

of representative members, some of whom will owe their presence to the 

recommendation of their fellow-citizens, will enjoy an ever increasing share 

1 G. W. Forrest, The Administration of Lansdowne, 1888-18Q4, p. 25. 

2 Loc. cit. 

3 "Advisory and Legislative Councils," Parliamentary Papers, East India, 
I (1909), 36 et seq. In summary form the composition of the various legislative 
councils under the regulations as finally issued was as follows : 

Imperial Legislative Council 

Ex officio: the lieutenant governor of Bengal (or the Punjab when sessions were at Simla); the 

commander in chief; the members of the Executive Council. Total 8 

Additional: nominated members, not more than 6 to be officials n 

Elected members, by Legislative Councils of Madras, Bombay, Bengal, and the United Provinces. . 4 

By Calcutta Chamber of Commerce 1 

Total '. 24 

Bengal 

Nominated members, not more than 10 to be officials. Total 13 

Elected members, 1 each by the Corporation of Calcutta, the University, Landholder's Association, 

Chambers of Commerce, and the municipalities (in rotation). Total .' . 5 

2 by the district boards (in rotation) 2 

Bombay 

Ex officio: members of the Executive Council and the advocate-general. Total 3 

Additional: nominated, not more than g to be officials 12 

Elected, 1 each by the Corporation of Bombay, the municipalities, Bombay University, Bombay 

Chamber of Commerce 4 

2 each by the district boards and the zamindars of Sind, with the Sardars of the Deccan 4 

Burma 

Officials, nominated 5 

Non-officials, nominated 4 

Madras 

Ex officio: members of the Executive Council and the advocate-general 3 

Additional: nominated, not more than 9 to be officials. 1 to be a zamindar paying 20,000 rupees 

pashkash 13 

Elected: 1 each by the Corporation of Madras, the University of Madras, and the Chamber of 

Commerce 3 

4 by the municipalities and district boards 4 

Punjab 

Nominated: officials 4 

Nominated: non-officials '. S 

United Provinces 

Nominated: not more than 7 to be officials 9 

Elected: 2 each by groups of municipalities and by groups of district boards 4 

1 each by the University of Allahabad and by the Upper India Chamber of Commerce 2 



1 64 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

of public confidence, that it will conduct its deliberations with wisdom, dignity, 
and moderation, and that it will prove to be a new source of stability and 
usefulness to the institutions of this country. 

As to the actual working of these electoral provisions, even the 
"Government of India Circular" of August 24, 1907, admitted: 

In the case of provincial councils it is admitted that the results have not 
justified the expectations formed. The district boards in particular have 
conspicuously failed to fulfill the expectation that they would represent the 
landed interest. Out of 54 members elected by them to the provincial councils, 
only 10 have been landholders, while 36 have been barristers and pleaders. 
Similarly out of 43 members elected by the district municipalities, 40 have been 
barristers and pleaders and only 2 landholders. Something has been done 
by nomination to remedy these defects; but out of the 338 non-official mem- 
bers who have been appointed, whether by election or nomination, to the 
provincial councils since election was introduced in 1893, as many as 123, or 36 
per cent, have been lawyers and only 77, or 22 per cent, landowners. It is thus 
apparent that the elective system has given to the legal profession a promi- 
nence in the provincial councils to which it is not entitled, while it has signally 
failed to represent other important elements of the community. These short- 
comings are reflected in the Legislative Council of the governor-general, where 
of the non-official members nominated or elected since 1893, 27, or 40 per cent, 
have been lawyers or schoolmasters, while the landholders have numbered 
only 16, or 23.5 per cent, and the mercantile community has been represented 
by 17, or 25 per cent. 1 

The government of India dispatch of 1908 expressed the same view, 
saying : 

The question of the direct representation of interests on the Imperial 
Legislative Council was not raised at the time of the passage of the Indian 
Councils Act of 1892 as it was believed that the non-official members of the 
provincial councils, as reconstituted under the regulations, would form a 
sufficiently wide electorate for the Supreme Council. This electorate, how- 
ever, while it worked advantageously in the case of the middle-educated class, 
did not afford proportionate representation to the other interests concerned. 
Of the non-official members elected to the Imperial Council since 1893, 45 per 
cent belonged to the professional middle class, the landholders obtained 27 per 
cent of the seats and the Mohammedans only 12 per cent, while the Indian 
mercantile community, a large and increasingly important body, had no 
representative at all. 2 

1 P. Mukherji, " Government of India Circular, "Indian Constitutional Documents, 
I773-I9I5 (Aug. 24, 1907), p. 218. 

2 " Advisory Legislative Councils," Parliamentary Papers, East India, I (1908), 
Dispatch from government of India to secretary of state. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 165 

The second prominent feature of the reforms was the alterations 
made in the provisions for the discussion of the financial statement. 1 
Between 1861 and 1891 there had been only thirty occasions when the 
introduction of a new measure of taxation had made possible a debate. 
On sixteen of those occasions the opportunity had been utilized. On 
fourteen it had slipped by in silence. The new departure in allowing 
general observations upon the estimates for the ensuing year drew less 
attention at the time than the electoral question. 

Lord Curzon's remarks on it were these: 

First, as regards the financial discussion, I have already pointed out to the 
House that under the existing law this is only possible when the finance minister 
proposes a new tax. At other times the Budget in India is circulated in the 

form of a pamphlet and no discussion can take place upon it at all In 

this Bill power will be given for a regular annual discussion of the budget, 
both in the Supreme and Provincial Councils. It is not contemplated, as the 
extracts I have read from the dispatch of Lord Dufferin will show, to vote the 
budget of India item by item in the manner in which we do it in this House, 
and to subject it to all the obstacles and delays which party ingenuity or 
loquacity can suggest. That is not contemplated but it is proposed to give 
opportunities to members of the Council to indulge in a full, free and fair 
criticism of the financial policy of the government and I think all parties will 
gain by such a discussion. The government will gain because they will have 
an opportunity of explaining their financial policy, of removing misapprehen- 
sion, of answering calumny and attack; and they will also profit by the criti- 
cism delivered in a public position and with a due sense of responsibility by the 
most competent representatives of non-official India. The native community 
will gain, because they will have the opportunity of reviewing the financial 
situation independently of the mere accident of legislation being required for 
any particular year, and also because criticism of the financial policy of the 
government, which now finds its vent in anonymous and even scurrilous 
articles in the newspapers, will be uttered by responsible persons in a public 
position. Lastly, the interests of finance themselves will gain by this increased 
publicity and by the stimulus of a vigorous and instructive scrutiny; and the 
application of the external aid that I have described cannot have any 
other result than the promotion of sound and economical administration in 
India. It is now twenty years since T. Mayo, that wise and enlightened 
viceroy, first proposed the submission of provincial budgets to the provincial 
councils. At that time he was overruled by the government at home, which, 
I believe, was one of the governments of the right honorable gentleman 
opposite. 2 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), 59. 

2 Ibid., pp. 59-60. 



1 66 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

Lord Lansdowne was more impressed with the provision. He said: 

The right to criticise the financial administration of government is one of 
which it is impossible to overestimate the value and I have never concealed 
my opinion that it was improper as well as illogical that the fight should be 
frequently denied merely upon the technical ground that no bill upon which a 
financial debate could be originated happened to be before the Council. The 
right to discuss and to criticise, is one which should be either altogether with- 
held or altogether conceded. The present arrangement under which it has 
been exercised one year and held in abeyance the next is altogether indefensible. 
These financial discussions will now take place with regularity and not upon 
sufferance and. I feel no doubt that both the public and the government of 
India will gain, the one by the wider knowledge and insight into public affairs 
which it will obtain, the other by the increased opportunity which will be 
given to it of explaining its position and defending its policy. 1 

As to the actual budget discussions, the official estimate in 1907 
was that 

the discussive and unfruitful character of the budget debates, both in the 
Imperial and Provincial Councils, has on many occasions formed the subject 
of comment and criticism. The government of India entirely recognizes the 

defects of the practice which prevails under the existing regulations 

These compel a member of council to include within the limits of a single 
speech all the observations he has to offer on any of the numerous subjects that 
naturally present themselves in an annual review of the administration of the 
revenue of India. 2 

The last feature of the reforms of 1892 was that introducing the 
privilege of interpellation. Regarding it Lord Lansdowne said : 

Their functions have, until now, with the solitary exception to be found 
in those occasional discussions of the budget which I have just mentioned, been 
very strictly and narrowly limited to those of assisting the government of 
India in the work of legislation. They have been absolutely precluded from 
asking for information or inquiring into matters of public interest. In advising 
Her Majesty's government to allow us to exceed these limits, we feel that we 
have taken a very serious and far-reaching step. We have taken it under a 
deep sense of the responsibility which we have assumed; we are fully aware 
that we are effecting a radical change in the character of these legislatures; 
but we are profoundly convinced that the time has come when it is desirable 
to bring them into closer touch with the rest of the community and that the 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXXII 
(Feb. 2, 1893), 46. 

2 P. Mukherji, "Government of India Circular," Indian Constitutional Docu- 
ments, 1773-1915, 1907, pp. 227-28. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 167 

reform which we are about to introduce is one which will be for the advantage 
of the government as well as of the people of this country. 1 

Lord Curzon was a little more detailed in his explanation. He said : 

It is desirable in the first place in the interest of the government, which is 
at the present moment without the means of making known its policy, or of 
answering criticism or animadversions or of silencing calumny, and which 
has frequently suffered from protracted misapprehension, which it has been 
powerless to remove, and it is also desirable in the interests of the public, who, 
in the absence of correct official information, are apt to be misled, and to enter- 
tain erroneous ideas, but who, within the limits dictated by the judgment 
of the responsible authorities, will henceforward have opportunities of making 
themselves acquainted with the real facts. I hope this liberty may provide a 
wise and necessary outlet in India for feelings which are now apt to smolder 
below the surface because there are no public means for their expression, but 
which might be allayed if timely information were given from the right 
quarter. 2 

The only question raised was relative to the creation of a tabooed 
list. Lord Lansdowne said of it: 

We had to consider whether it was desirable to specify certain subjects 
with regard to which questions should be inadmissible. It is obvious that 
there are some matters with regard to which no government can allow itself 
to be publicly interpellated, such matters, for example, as military preparations 
at a time when hostilities are in progress, or in contemplation, or matters of 
financial policy involving the premature disclosure of information affecting 
the market. 

The conclusion to which we came was that it was better at all events in 
the early days of the new procedure not to commit ourselves to any specifica- 
tions of subjects. The impropriety of a question may be due quite as much to 
the time and circumstances under which it is asked as to the subject-matter, 
and although we believe that experience may possibly enable us to lay down 
the rules of the kind suggested, we are of the opinion that for the present it 
will be desirable to content ourselves with taking power for the president to 
disallow a question upon the ground that it cannot be answered consistently 
with public interests. The reformed councils will, I have no doubt, show a 
proper appreciation of the limits within which the right of interpellation can 
be exercised without injury to public interests and I have every hope that it 
will very rarely be found necessary to resort to the veto of the president. I 
may add that in this case also the rule adopted is similar to that in force in 
the House of Commons. 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXXII 
(Feb. 2, 1893), 48. 

2 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. Ill (1892), col. 61. 



1 68 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The rules as to questions asked in the local legislatures were conceived in 
the same spirit, but they contained two special and important restrictions. 
Under the first of these, members of councils were precluded from asking 
questions with regard to matters or branches of the administration other than 
those under the control of the local government. The second restriction was 
this, that in matters which are, or have been, the subject of controversy 
between the governor-general in council or the secretary of state and the local 
government, no question should be asked except as to matters of fact, while 
the answers must be confined to a statement of the facts. 1 

This privilege of asking questions thus granted was but sparingly- 
exercised. 

In short, as a whole, the Indian Councils Act of 1892 showed the 
influence of the Congress propaganda. 

It was an attempt at compromise between the official view of the councils 
as pocket legislatures and the educated Indian view of them as embryo parlia- 
ments. It marks a definite parting of the ways, the first milestone on a road 
leading eventually to political deadlock and a strangling of executive govern- 
ment. While no efforts were made to enlarge the boundaries of the educated 
class, to provide them with any training in responsibility government, or to 
lay the foundations of a future electorate to control them, the Act deliberately 
attempted to dally with the elective idea. 2 

One other event 3 of the 1890's must be mentioned in connection with 
the development of self-government in India. In 1897 a legislative 
council was established in the Punjab, thirty-six years after the passing 
of the Indian Councils Act which had distinctly contemplated the 
establishment of such a council, but had left the selection of the time to 
the governor-general in council. The strong opinion expressed by Sir 
James Lyall in 1891 was the deciding factor in the belated action. His 
reasons were concisely expressed as follows : (a) that there was a general 
feeling among the educated classes in favor of the measure; (b) that a 
free discussion of the measures of the government, especially in regard 
to financial matters, would be prolific and useful; and (c) that pro- 
vincial legislation of which there was considerable need would be 
promoted. 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXXII 
(1893), 47. 

2 Round Table, VIII, No. 1 (Dec, 1017), 32. 

3 Sir Mackworth Young, "The Progress of the Punjab," Imperial and Asiatic 
Quarterly Review, 3d Ser., XIX (1905), 63-64. 



THE INDIAN COUNCILS ACT OF 1892 169 

Young, who was Lyall's successor, said: "The last of these anticipa- 
tions has certainly been realized. It has been found a much simpler 
business to get the government of India to agree to the passing of a 
measure by the local legislature than to prevail upon it to pass the 
measure itself." The right of interpellation was withheld from the 
Punjab Legislative Council. A similar council was at the same time 
given to Burma. 



CHAPTER X 

THE PRESIDENCY CITIES, 1858-1914 

Characteristics of the presidency cities 
Size 

Preponderance of European influence 
The governments of the presidency cities in 1858 
Later developments 
Calcutta 

Act of 1863 
Act of 1876 
Act of i88g 
Act of 1899 
Madras 

Act of 1865 

Act of 1867 

Act of 1892 

• Act of 1904 

Bombay 

Act of 1865 
Act of 1872 
Act of 1888 

Aside from the few municipal and local boards acts and amendments, 
the last few years of the nineteenth century were phenomenally quiet. 
The Congress continued its sessions and annually passed resolutions, 
but on the whole there was little other manifestation of political life. 

Probably the most important event from the viewpoint of self- 
government was the reactionary municipal act passed for Calcutta 
in 1899 to replace that of 1888. In this connection it will be well to 
look briefly at the development not only of Calcutta but its two sisters, 
Madras and Bombay. 

The presidency cities, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, are in a 
distinct class, and since the establishment of provincial legislative 
councils in 1861 special acts have invariably been passed in the legisla- 
tive councils of their respective presidencies for their government. 

The size and peculiar character of the presidency cities as semi- 
Europeanized commercial centers have put them in a category with 
but little in common with the other towns and cities of India. For 

170 



THE PRESIDENCY CITIES, 1858-1914 171 

this reason, in many ways the presidency cities have less significance 
in the development of self-government than the district municipalities. 
They are less Indian than the other cities, and large though they are, 
their populations are relatively insignificant in the vast mass of India. 

On the other hand, the presidency cities have been the intellectual 
and commercial centers of India, and their examples have had great 
influence on the lesser towns. On this account they cannot be entirely 
overlooked. 

At the time 1 when the government of India was transferred to the 
crown in 1858, all three of the presidency cities were governed by a 
body corporate, consisting of three nominated members in whom all 
the municipal functions were concentrated. Up to that time the govern- 
ment of these cities had been determined by the legislation enacted by 
the Legislative Council of the governor-general. In 1861 came the 
Indian Councils Act creating provincial legislative councils for the three 
presidencies, Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. Thenceforth each city 
had its own individual development, with its laws enacted for it by its 
own council. The isolation was by no means complete, however, and 
all were influenced by the legislation passed for the others. Thus the 
elective system which was introduced into Bombay in 1872 was copied 
by Calcutta in 1876, and Madras in 1878. It was the same with other 
features. 

Calcutta was the first of the trio to avail itself of the new provincial 
legislative councils. In 1863 a municipal act was passed for it by the 
Bengal Council. By it 2 the municipal functions were invested in a 
body corporate composed of all the justices of the peace resident in 
Calcutta. One of them was to be appointed chairman by the lieutenant 
governor of Bengal. The latter was also to appoint an auditor. The 
confirmation of the lieutenant governor was required for all by-laws. 
The income of the municipality was to be derived from rates on houses 
and lands, a license tax on carriages and animals and on professions 
and trades. The expenditures were to provide lighting for the streets, 
a water supply, and for the drainage of the town. The justices were 
given control over the registration of births and deaths, and the census. 
By by-laws they might regulate the general sanitation of the city, 
controlling nuisances, slaughter-houses, and burial grounds. The con- 
trol of all municipal property and funds was vested in the corporation. 

1 Sir W. W. Hunter, Imperial Gazetteer of India, IV, 285. 

2 Published in full in the Acts of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal in Council, 
Act VI of 1863, pp. 71 et seq. 



172 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

Thirteen years later, in 1876, a new law was enacted, which following 
the example of the Bombay Act of 1872 introduced a system of election. 
Sir Richard Temple, who more than any other one man was responsible 
for the enactment of the law of 1876 for Calcutta, concisely put the 
reasons for the act and summarized its working in these words : 

The constitution of the municipality was not popular, the members of the 
corporation being all appointed by the government, the tax-paying citizens 
were becoming generally dissatisfied with the arrangement. In fact an edu- 
cated middle class had arisen which objected to the exclusive power heretofore 
pertaining to the upper class and desired to have a voice and share in the 
urban administration. A bill was therefore passed through the Legislative 
Council whereby only one-third of the members were to be appointed by 
government, and the remainder elected by the rate payers. This measure was, 
as might be expected, displeasing to the upper classes among the natives, and 
even to the Europeans who apprehended that with so great a numerical pre- 
ponderance of native voters none but natives would be elected. The govern- 
ment, however, having the power of appointing one-third of the members was 
thereby enabled to secure a due proportion of Europeans in the municipality. 
At first the rate payers seemed hardly to comprehend the liberality of the con- 
cession which had been made to them, being careless in exercising their new 
franchise. The candidates elected often failed to give practical attention to 
progressive measures for the improvement of the place. Subsequently, how- 
ever, there must have arisen that benefit which cannot fail to arise from 
the natives having some power over and interest in their municipal affairs. 
The moral effect too must be beneficial in forming their national character 
and making them feel jointly responsible with the government for the improve- 
ment of their city which comprises so many interests. 1 

The act of 1876 2 vested the municipal functions in a body of seventy- 
two commissioners, with a chairman and vice-chairman. The members 
were required to be male residents of Calcutta who had attained the age 
of twenty-one. Candidates were required to have paid a tax of at least 
one hundred rupees. Forty-eight of the members were to be elected, 
and twenty-four to be nominated by the government, supposedly in 
such a way as to secure representation for classes and minorities which 
failed to obtain due recognition in the elections. 

The electorate was composed of male residents who had attained 
the age of twenty-one and had paid taxes aggregating twenty-five 
rupees. The chairman was to be appointed by the local government. 

1 Sir R. Temple, Men and Events of My Time in India, p. 424. 

2 Published in full in the Acts of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal in Council, 
Act IV of 1876, pp. 63 et seq. 



THE PRESIDENCY CITIES, 1858-1914 173 

The functions of the municipality were very minutely defined under the 
heads of public safety, public health, and public convenience, but were 
in general identical with the functions prescribed for other municipali- 
ties. The same was true of the kinds of taxes authorized and the pur- 
poses for which they were to be expended. 

Under the act of 1876 1 the finances of the Corporation of Calcutta 
were mismanaged in the three years immediately following the establish- 
ment of the new system of municipal administration, but it was not 
entirely due to the elected members. No change, however, was made 
until 1888 2 when a new act was passed, after very full discussions in the 
council, in the press, and by the corporation. 

This law 3 raised the number of commissioners to seventy-five. 
Fifteen were to be government appointees to insure suitable representa- 
tion for those classes and minorities which failed in the election of the 
sixty other members. Of these sixty, fifty were to be elected by male 
rate-payers, twenty-one years old. The rates paid might be those 
paid by an owner or an occupier of houses or lands, or simply a total of 
twenty-four rupees. Ten seats were reserved for special class representa- 
tion, four for the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, four for the Calcutta 
Trades Association and two for the commissioners for making improve- 
ments in the port of Calcutta. 

The unique innovation of the act was the provision for giving addi- 
tional votes to those who paid larger amounts of taxes. The schedule 
gave one additional vote to owners of property, which was assessed at 
600 rupees, two to those owning property assessed at 1,000 rupees, and 
another for every 500 additional rupees of value. The other changes 
were minor. 

Opinions on the working of this act differed. In 1895 4 as many 
as 75 per cent of the electorate voted in the contested wards of Calcutta, 
and the Bengalee said of it : 

By Act II of 1888, 50 of the 75 commissioners of Calcutta were elected by 
the rate payers, who thus had a standing majority and administered the 

1 Voice of India, II (1884), 10. 

2 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XXVII 
(1888), 157. 

3 Published in full in Acts of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, i886-i88g. Act 
III of 1888. 

4 A. Y. Ali, " Civic Life in India, " Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, 3d Ser , 
XXI (1906), 247. 



174 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

affairs of the municipality in the interest of the rate payers without fear of 
favor and heedless of official frowns. * 

This seems to have proved galling to the authorities, and in 1896 Sir 
Alexander MacKenzie delivered his famous speech while laying the 
foundation stone of the new drainage works at Entally. 

Gross mismanagement was charged. Regarding it, Mr. Ritchie 
at one time municipal chairman, said, in 1888: 

The citizens of Calcutta were given practically complete powers of self- 
government on the model of a modern English borough, the chief distinction 
being that an official chairman was nominated and appointed by the govern- 
ment. There is a consensus of well-informed opinion that the powers given 
were misused, and that the government of the city fell below the standard of 
any decently governed European town. The system was an improvement 
on what went before, and under it a few hard working and really valuable 
municipal councilors were developed. But these were not able to control the 
capriciousness and instability of the main body of the council, with the result 
that the Calcutta town councilors were constantly at variance with their 
executive officers; they formed no ideals of what was wanted; they covered 
themselves with ridicule by impracticable proposals and instead of affording 
driving power acted simply as a brake, and limited themselves to supplying 
the very minimum of the measures required by European public opinion for 
the metropolis of India. Things came to such a pass that some ten years ago 
their powers had to be very materially curtailed in the interests of sanitation 
and decent civic existence. 2 

Sir W. W. Hunter also said of it: 

The administration of Calcutta under its municipal act of 1876 and 1888 
was not very successful The commissioners interfered with the execu- 
tive, and although some large schemes for the improvement of the city were 
carried through, parts of it were allowed to remain in a very insanitary condi- 
tion and municipal business was neglected in several other directions. These 
dangers were brought prominently to notice when plague first threatened 
the city. Special effort was then made to improve sanitation and it was 
determined in order to secure better administration in the future to alter the 
municipal constitution. 3 

Whatever the truth of the contentions, in 1899, under the efficient 
regime of Lord Curzon, a law was enacted over the objections of Sir 
John Wedderburn. The feature 4 of the act which cut the number of 

1 Bengalee, August 2, 1916, p. 4, col. 2. Cited from Goode, Municipal Calcutta. 

2 G. Ritchie, "Constitutional and Administrative Changes in India," Imperial 
and Asiatic Quarterly Review, 3d Ser., XXVIII (1909), 80. 

3 Sir W. W. Hunter, op. cit., IV, 295. 4 Bengalee, May 2, 1912, p. 4., col. 1. 



THE PRESIDENCY CITIES, 1858-1914 175 

elected members from fifty to twenty-five was strenuously objected to. 
On September 1, 1899/ as a protest against the Calcutta municipal 
bill then under consideration, twenty-eight municipal commissioners of 
the corporation went so far to resign after one of the storms and some 2 
of the most influential declined to engage thereafter in the administra- 
tion of the new act. 

The law itself, 3 was an elaborate measure consisting of 652 sec- 
tions but aside from cutting the number of elected members down 
from fifty to twenty-five and creating a general or steering com- 
mittee to do the work which the larger body could not attend to, 
presented few noteworthy features. The general committee feature 
was copied from Bombay. Its members were chosen, four by the 
elected members of the corporation, four by the members representing 
the commercial community, and four by the local government. As 
under the previous act, fifteen members were to be appointed by the local 
government, four by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, four by the 
Calcutta Trades Association and two by the commissioners for the port 
of Calcutta. The total membership was thus reduced from seventy- 
two to fifty-two. The chairman was to be appointed by the local 
government. The electoral qualification requirements remained sub- 
stantially the same, as did the powers, functions, sources of revenue. 4 

Madras was two years behind Calcutta in beginning its series of 
alterations. The form of municipal government was bequeathed it 
by the East India Company. The first act passed for the city by the 
Madras Legislative Council came in 1 865.5 It provided: for a municipal 
government composed of six commissioners, three paid, appointed by 
the governor in council, and three unpaid, also selected by the governor 
in council, from the residents of Madras for a term of three years. The 
president was to be one of the six, designated by the governor. The 

1 Ibid., July 15, 1916, p. 4, col. 1. 

2 Ibid., August 2, 1916, p. 4, col. 2. Reviewing Goode, Municipal Calcutta. 

3 Bengal Code, IV ed., Vol. Ill, pp. 219 et seq. 

4 A deputy chairman was also created, who proved to be somewhat of a fifth 
wheel to the coach. He was originally intended to be an engineer and the personal 
assistant of the chairman in building and other operations. The idea was ultimately 
given up and no qualification attached to the office by statute, with the result that a 
member of the civil service was in practice always appointed. In practice he also 
served in the place of the chairman when the latter was absent.— Bengalee, October 9, 
1909, p. 5, col. 1. 

s See Acts of the Governor of Madras in Council (1865), Act IX, of 1865, for the 
complete law. 



176 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

usual taxes on houses, vehicles, animals, professions, and buildings were 
authorized. These rates were to be expended for the police and con- 
servancy. There were no unusual features in these respects. 

Two years later, in 1867, a fresh act was passed for the city of 
Madras. 1 This act divided the city of Madras into eight divisions and 
authorized the government to appoint four commissioners as representa- 
tives of each division. Their term was three years, subject to removal 
for misconduct. The entire executive power was vested in an officer 
appointed by the government called the president of the Board of 
Commissioners. The usual taxes were authorized to be expended as 
in the other cities for the general conservancy and improvement of 
the city. 

An amendment by Act V of March 15, 187 1, 2 authorized the extension 
of the use of the city funds to education and empowered the government 
to take measures to provide for the election of a certain number of 
municipal commissions when it deemed it advisable. 

As a result of the Calcutta agitation of 1876, similar demands were 
put forward in Madras. 3 The government yielded and in 1788 a new 
act authorized the appointment of commissioners by election as vacancies 
might occur, until half the numbers should be elected by the rate- 
payers. 

The Hindu, at the time a tri-weekly English paper of Madras, said 
on December 24, 1884, regarding this act: 

It is unreasonable to expect the ordinary public to consider and discuss 
municipal questions as long as they and their representatives are allowed 
little voice in the management of the municipality itself and as their repre- 
sentations have been so frequently unheeded as they have been made to 
government, their attitude has sunk into that of passive discontent sustained 
by a sense of high handed exercise of the arbitrary power of government 

Neither the Bombay nor the Calcutta municipality pays its president the 
enormous salary that Madras is made to pay, yet when compared to the other 
two cities Madras is nothing in point of affluent revenue. What is worse, the 
president and vice-president are made the masters of the corporation instead 
of its servants. The president of the Bombay municipality has, if we are 
informed correctly, no voice in the deliberations of the Town Council, which 
corresponds to our standing committee here, and which chooses its own presi- 

1 For complete law, see Madras Code, 1st ed., 1876, pp. 305 et seq. Act LX 
of 1867. 

2 Madras Code, 1876 ed., Calcutta, p. 486. 

3 John Crowdy, "Our Indian Empire," British Almanac and Companion, 
1878, p. 74. 



THE PRESIDENCY CITIES, 1858-1914 177 

dent, whereas in Madras not the president alone but his two lieutenants, also, 
are ex officio members of the standing committee whose quorum is five. 1 

In 1892 an amending act was passed for Madras. 2 Its purpose 
was to remodel the existing law along the lines of the Calcutta Act of 
1888. The most important alterations were: The municipal affairs were 
intrusted to a president and a body of thirty-two persons, who were 
required to be made residents twenty-five years old, acquainted with 
the English language, and to have paid taxes aggregating one hundred 
rupees in the preceding year. Officials, those persons interested in mu- 
nicipal contracts, or persons with criminal records were debarred. The 
governor in council was authorized to appoint a revenue officer, a health 
officer, and an engineer. 

The last of the Madras acts was that of 1904. 3 It was the most 
elaborate of the laws, consisting of some 473 sections. In general it 
followed the model of the Calcutta Act of 1899. The affairs of Madras 
city were to be administered by the president and thirty-six commis- 
sioners. Twenty of the thirty-six were to be elected by divisional 
elections, three were to be appointed by the Madras Chamber of Com- 
merce, three by the Madras Trades Association, two by such other 
bodies as the local government might direct, eight were to be appointed 
by the local government. 

As in Calcutta, a standing committee was provided consisting of 
eight members elected by the commissioners, four of those elected two 
from the government appointees and two from those chosen by the 
various bodies. The qualifications required for the commissioners in 
the previous law were continued. 4 

1 Voice of India, II (1884), p. 10. 

2 Acts of the Governor of Fort St. George in Council, i8gi and i8g2 (Madras, 1893). 
Act II of 1892. 

3 Madras Code, 4th ed., II (1904), 882 et seq. Act III. 

4 The elaborate detail of the act is illustrated by the following summary of the 
taxes and powers authorized: 

a) A tax on the exercise of professions, arts, trades, and callings, and on offices 
and appointments; (b) a tax on buildings and lands; (c) a water and drainage tax; 
(d) a lighting tax; (e) a tax on vehicles with springs and on animals; (/) a tax on carts 
and on other vehicles without springs; (g) tolls on vehicles and on animals entering 
municipal limits. 

The Municipal Corporation was also given power to provide for the public health, 
safety, and convenience under the following heads: water supply; drains, latrines, 
and urinals; streets; buildings regulations; lighting; sanitation; inspection and regula- 
tion of places; keeping of animals; public bathing and washing; factories and trades; 
slaughter-houses and markets; food and drugs; restraint of infection; vaccination; 
registration of births and deaths; disposal of the dead; census; railways. 



178 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

When the Crown 1 took over the government of India in 1858, 
Bombay like the other presidency cities was under the management of 
a board of three commissioners, functioning under Act XIV of 1856 
and Act XXV of 1858. Health conditions in the city were so horrible 
that the governor, Sir Bartle Frere, finally ordered a detailed report. 
It was submitted by Dr. Leith on February 29, 1864. It proved so 
alarming that a government resolution followed on May 2, 1864, and in 
due time Act II of 1865 found its place on the Bombay statute books. 

The new law went into force on July 1, 1865, the ill-omened "black 
day" of Bombay financial history. In form it was very similar to the 
Calcutta act of two years before, and in part no doubt was based as far as 
details were concerned on the English health act of 1855. The list of 
activities and public works covered by the law were essentially the same 
as those in the Calcutta act. They included water supply, drainage, 
conservancy, public health, markets, slaughter-houses, weights and 
measures, public works, public traffic, buildings, police, lighting, trade 
licenses, public nuisances, vital statistics, fines, penalties, finances, and 
powers of borrowing. 

The entire executive power and responsibility for the purposes of the 
act were vested in one commissioner instead of three. He was appointed 
by the governor in council for a term of three years, and was to be eligible 
for reappointment provided that he should always be removable from 
office by the governor in council for misconduct or neglect or incapacity 
to perform his duty, at the recommendation of not less than two- 
thirds of the justices of the peace present at a special general meeting 
of the "justices." His title was "municipal commissioner for the city 
of Bombay." His salary was to be 3,000 rupees. 

Back of the municipal commissioner were the justices of the peace, 
to whom was intrusted the government of the city in the matters of 
deliberation and legislation. At the time, they numbered about one 
hundred. They were in no sense an elected body. Many of them 
paid rates but none were supposed to represent the rate-payers directly. 
They were all government nominees. Their meetings were quarterly, 
and the quorum required was seven. In a way, local self-government 
was undoubtedly established, but at that date the government hardly 
expected that a dozen of the justices would find the leisure or possess 
the necessary spirit of self-sacrifice to attend the quarterly meetings 
and supervise the work of the chief executive. In practice, however, 
a large number did attend, especially during the regime of Sir Bartle 

1 D. E. Wacha, The Rise and Growth of Bombay Municipal Government, p. 80. 



THE PRESIDENCY CITIES, 1858-1914 179 

Frere. Among the prominent individuals were Sir William Mansfield, 
Mr. Walter Cassels, and Mr. Juggonath Sunkersett. 1 

The act of 1865 worked well as far as efficiency went, and a marvellous 
transformation was effected in the sanitary condition of the city, but 
the expense involved was the principal cause of the radical change made 
in 1872. The immediate occasion of this Act III of 1872 was the 
financial extravagance of Mr. Crawford, resulting in the scandal of 
1870-71 when the municipality was forced to declare itself bankrupt. 2 
The declaration roused the rate-payers. Public meetings were held. 
The press became active. 

The government finally yielded grudgingly to the popular movement 
headed by Mr. Forbes and Mr. Mangaldas Nathoobhoy and Mr. 
Nowroji Furdooji and others. Mr. Tucker was in charge of the bill and 
fought the radicals stubbornly. The bill as it finally went on to the 
statute books created a corporation of sixty-four members, elected by 
those paying taxes of over fifty rupees per annum. An effort to virtually 
extend the franchise to all Europeans by granting it to all who paid a 
wheel tax was defeated. The Corporation was to choose an advisory 
council of twelve persons known as the Town Council. The right of 
appointing the chairman was reserved by the government. The govern- 
ment also retained the power to appoint the commissioner, in whom all 
the executive power and responsibility was intrusted. The most that 
the government would concede was that he should be removable by the 
vote of forty members at a special general meeting of the corporation. 
His term was three years and he was eligible for reappointment. 

The actual municipal government was vested in a "Municipal 
Corporation" of sixty-four members. Of these sixty-four, thirty-two 
were to be elected by the rate-payers, sixteen by the justices, and the 
remaining sixteen were to be appointed by the government. 3 The 
qualifications required for members were that they be rate-payers, 
twenty-five years old, whose taxes amounted to thirty rupees a year, 
or who were justices of the peace or fellows of the university. As usual 
they were required to have clean criminal records, and to be without 
interest in municipal contracts. 

The most important feature of the law, and the one which was 
subsequently copied by both Calcutta and Madras, was the creation of 

1 Ibid., p. 20. 

2 Ibid., p. 31. 

3 The act (No. Ill of 1872) is published in full in the Bombay Code, ed. of 1880, 
pp. 310 et seq. 



180 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

a steering committee of twelve members. This body bore the title of 
"Town Council," and was selected from the full corporation, eight by 
election from among and by the corporation and four appointed from 
the same body by the government. 

The executive power was vested in a commissioner selected by the 
government. The usual taxes on lands, buildings, and vehicles were 
authorized, together with town duties and a tax on fire-insurance 
companies. The money thus raised was to be expended for promoting 
the public health, safety instruction, and convenience. Each of these 
headings was covered in detail, but the provisions present nothing 
different from those of the other laws. 

The next important change in the form of government of Bombay 
city came in 1888. The act of that year was a belated echo of the tumult 
of Lord Ripon's reforms. The resolution of his government dated May 
18, 1882, proposed an extension of financial decentralization whereby 
certain items of receipts and expenditures such as primary education, 
medical relief, police, etc., were to be made over to municipal and local 
boards. 1 Correspondence was begun with the government of Bombay 
relative to the matter. On January 10, 1883, a resolution was moved 
by Mr. Vishawanath Narayan Mandilik and seconded by Mr. P. M. 
Mehta, in the corporation that 

this Corporation humbly offers its respectful thanks to His Excellency, 
the Viceroy, for his noble efforts to systematize and properly direct the meas- 
ures for the extension and consolidation of local self-government in India 
and expresses the earnest hope that in the bills now under consideration the 
municipal laws of Bombay passed by the governments of Sir Seymour Fitz- 
gerald and Sir Philip Wodehouse may be further amended by investing the 
representatives of the city with a larger and more substantial share in the 
administration of their own affairs. 

Negotiations proceeded regarding the transfer of provincial receipts. 
On March 2, 1883, the Town Council appointed a committee to confer 
with the municipal commissioner relative thereto. It reported but the 
Corporation was not satisfied with the financial proposals and asked 
more extensive powers of self-government. A new committee was 
appointed to consider what departments of administration the munici- 
pality should ask for. It reported August n, 1883. Among other 
things it proposed that the Corporation should be increased from sixty- 
four to seventy-two, selected as follows: 2 thirty-six by the rate-payers; 

1 D. E. Wacha, The Rise and Growth of Bombay Municipal Government, p. 292. 

2 Ibid., p. 295. 



THE PRESIDENCY CITIES, 1858-1914 181 

twenty-four by the justices; two by the university Fellows; two by 
the Chamber of Commerce; eight to be appointed by the government. 

All graduates of the university were to be given the franchise. 
The Bombay government announced that it had a new measure under 
consideration, but it was the keenest opponent of the schemes of Lord 
Ripon, and delayed unconscionably. Almost four years elapsed in 
silence while Lord Reahy deliberated. On July 5, 1886, the Corporation 
passed another resolution requesting copies of the bill and on July 16, 
1887, the bill was finally introduced. 

At the time the constitutional law of Bombay city was embodied in 
eleven separate enactments. The first purpose of the new bill had been 
to consolidate the law, but the opposition succeeded in securing some 
liberal concessions and the bill was finally passed with general approval. 

The act as finally adopted after this very full discussion, not only 
in the Council itself, but in the press and by the municipal body which it 
more immediately concerned, was an elaborate law. 1 

It enlarged the Corporation to seventy-two members, of whom 
thirty-six were to be elected by wards, sixteen by justices, two by fellows 
of the University, two by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce; sixteen 
were to be appointed by the government. Voters were to be required 
to be residents of the ward, twenty-one years old, who either paid thirty 
rupees in taxes or were graduates of a university. The Corporation was 
authorized to elect a president, but the commissioner who did the bulk 
of the work was still appointed by the government. The changes in 
the powers and functions of the corporation were trivial. 

The Bombay constitution has worked well and the citizens have 
shown both public spirit and ability in the conduct of the administra- 
tion. 2 At the outbreak 3 of the war in 19 14 the three cities were still 
being governed under the acts of 1888 for Bombay, 1899 for Calcutta, 
and 1904 for Madras. Calcutta had begun to agitate for a new measure 
in 1913, but the outbreak of the war stopped any further action. 

1 The provisions of this act attracted attention on the continent of Europe. 
The act may be found in full in Bombay Code, III, pp. 2 et seq. Act III of 1888. 

2 W. W. Hunter, Imperial Gazetteer of India, IV, 296. 

3 Bengalee, June 13, 1913, p. 5, col. 1. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 

Russo-Japanese War — a new era inaugurated in India 
Manifestation of the new spirit — unrest 
Causes of unrest 

Example of Japan 

Education 

Treatment of Indians in other colonies 

Partiality shown Boers 
Plague 
Famine 
Race feeling 
Curzon's reforms 
Partition of Bengal 
Attitude of the government of Lord Minto — minute of 1906 
Progress of the movement 

Cleavages in native opinion 
Extremists and moderates 
The Congress split 
Formation of the All-India Moslem League 
Government reform circular, August 24, 1907 
The Council of India Act, 1907 — admission of two natives to the Council 

of India 
The course of the agitation 
Songs 
Speeches 
Articles 
Violence 
Effect of the agitation on the policy of the government 
Repressive measures 

Seditious Meetings Act, 1908 
Explosives Substance Act, 1908 
Newspapers' Incitement to Offences Act, 1908 
Act to prohibit associations dangerous to public peace, 1908 
Further concessions 

Admission of an Indian to the Executive Council of the viceroy 
The Indian Councils Act of 1909 
Regulations under it 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 183 

Its main features 

Extension of budget discussion— resolutions 
Extension of interpellation — supplementary questions 

The working of these two features 
The non-official majority in the enlarged provincial councils 
The official bloc in the Imperial Council 
The working of these two features 
Special electorates for the Mohammedans 
The dropping of the advisory council scheme 
Authorization for provincial executive council 
Attitude toward the reforms 
English 
Native 
Reasons for failure 

The year 1904 and the Russo-Japanese War stand as the water-shed 
between the old and the new in the political life of India. 1 The Japanese 
victory seemed to be the detonator that set off a series of political 
explosions in the Oriental world which had been slowly preparing since 
the Abyssinians crushed the Italians at Adowah. In 1906 Persia roused 
itself to an ephemeral constitutional regime. Turkey began to experience 
the stirrings of the young Turks which resulted in the revolution of 1908. 
Symptoms of unrest began to agitate Egypt and Algeria. 

In India, as H. P. Mody expressed it: 

The success of the Island. Empire of the East has opened up a vista of 
glorious possibilities. It has shattered the old time belief in the unvulnerability 
of Western might and power. Men gaped with astonishment when they saw 
a power which had dominated the councils of Europe crumble into dust before 
the vigorous arm of a nation of patriots. This stirred into activity the East 
that was slowly awakening from her slumbers. What Japan has done India 
can do — thus men argued. The wish is often father to the thought and what 
men wish to believe they accept without critical examination. Thus the success 
of Japan has created a spirit of emulation in the breast of every Indian patriot. 2 

Many of the causes for the restlessness in India were of long standing, 
and the feeling itself was by no means new. It had been more or less in 
evidence since Lord Lytton's term, and even before. The new feature 
was the numbers involved. 

The educational system had continued to turn out annually its 
thousands, 3 a certain percentage of whom invariably were crowded out in 

1 Sir A. C. Lyall, in Introduction to Chirol's Unrest in India, IX. 

2 H. P. Mody, The Political Future of India, p. 72. 

s The extent of the advance that had taken place in the development of 
the educated classes can hardly be judged by statistical tests, but it may be mentioned 



1 84 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

the struggle for government positions and in consequence cherished a 
varying degree of vindictiveness against the government. All of them, 
says Rees in his Real India, 1 "imbibed sedition with their daily lessons. 
It would be hard for students of any race to study the struggle for 
English constitutional liberty without feeling irked at an alien rule. 
The miracle is that England has not had to face far more difficulties 
than she has." 

Mr. Crosthwaite describes the situation with these words: 

That England was bound to educate the people of India, let the conse- 
quences be what they might, is admitted by most men If you teach 

a man English you cannot prevent him from reading, and if he reads a few 
pages of English history or a few of Scott's or Thackeray's works it is enough 
to set him thinking and comparing his lot with that of the others. If you 
do not like this kind of spirit, said a native school master some thirteen years 
ago, do not let them read about King John and the Magna Charta. 

No greater praise can be given England's administration than the passivity 
if nothing more of thousands of those who have been educated at her hands. 2 

The treatment of Indians in other colonies contributed to this 
feeling. 3 The resentment was cherished particularly against the South 
African colonies. In Natal, East Indians might be imported as inden- 
tured laborers, but those remaining after the expiration of their terms 
were subject to a three-pound poll tax. No immigration was allowed 
except to those speaking a European language. In the Transvaal after 
1885 they were subject to a three-pound fee as traders and could not 
hold land registered in their own names. They were classed as natives 



that within the preceding twenty years the number of scholars studying English had 
risen from 298,000 to 505,000; whilst the number of students passing the annual 
matriculation examination of the Indian Universities had increased from 4,286 in 
1886 to 8,211 in 1905, and the number of Bachelors of Art from 708 in the former 
year to 1,570 in the latter. During this period higher education had penetrated to 
circles which a generation ago had hardly been affected by its influence. 

In addition, thousands of students had begun to seek the universities of England, 
Germany, France, and the United States. After the Russo-Japanese War Japan 
became another center. 

P. Mukherji, "Government of India Circular, " Indian Constitutional Documents, 
1773-IQ15 (Aug. 24, 1907), pp. 211-13. S. N. Sing, "India's Coming Greatness," 
Arena, XXXIX (1908), 403. 

1 J. D. Rees, The Real India, p. 161. 

2 C. H. T. Crosthwaite, "The New Spirit," Blackwood's Magazine, CLXXX 
(Sept., 1906), 408-9. 

3L. W. Hitch, "The Burden of the British Indian in South Africa," Imperial 
and Asiatic Quarterly Review, 3d Ser., XXIII, 75-76. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 185 

and subjected to discrimination in railroad carriages, trains, and cabs. 
In Cape Colony the restriction of immigration by the European-language 
test barred them. The Orange River Colony in 1888 expelled all 
Indians. The generous treatment accorded the Boers was felt to be 
partiality. It was said: 

A few years ago it took nearly all the resources of Britain to subdue a 
comparatively insignificant number of Boer farmers who had drawn their 
swords and rebelled against the supreme government. The Boers were 
conquered, and within an amazingly short period of time they were given 
that self-government for which Indians are striving in vain. The Transvaal 
and the Orange River Colony possess Parliament and home rule in spite of the 
fact that they strove to the utmost of their ability to drive out the British flag 
from South Africa. It must be admitted that this unexampled act of mag- 
nanimity is not a little puzzling to Indians if indeed the bewilderment is 
limited to them. The bitterness of the comparison is accentuated by the 
allegation that while one of the causes of the Boer War was the ill-treatment 
of Indians by the government of President Kruger, so far from the slightest 
relief having been afforded by British rule in the two colonies, our Indian 
fellow-subjects who were formerly chastised with whips are now chastised 
with scorpions. 1 

There were various supplemental irritants. 2 Some of them seem to 
have stirred the deeps of the masses of Indian humanity. The bubonic 
plague fastened itself in endemic form on the country in 1896. In a 
blind fashion the government was blamed. Some of the more rabid 
papers even accused the government of deliberately spreading the disease 
by poisoning the wells in order to reduce the population and keep India 
more easily in subjection. More or less chronic famine was a similar 
irritant and was aggravated by the general world-wide rise in prices. 3 
In 1900 occurred what was called the worst famine of the century, with 
some six million under relief. 

Among the higher classes race feeling seems to have been growing 
in intensity 4 and coupled with it a conviction that India was being 
economically exploited if not plundered by English exporters and 
manufacturers. 

1 E. C. Cox, "Danger in India," Nineteenth Century Review, LXIV (July-Dec, 
1908), 946-47- 

2 Sir E. F. Law, "Disaffection in India," Blackwoods Magazine, CLXXXII 
(Aug., 1907), 295. 

3 F. Abraham, "Was Lord Curzon's Policy a Success?" Imperial and Asiatic 
Quarterly Review, 3d Ser., XXVII (1909), 294. 

1 Englishman, April 26, 1900, p. 3, col. 2. 



1 86 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

One of the first manifestations of the change in tone came at the 
Congress of 1904 when the venerable Dadabhai Naoroji said: 

"The rising generation of Indians may not be able to exercise that 
patience which we of the passing and past generation have shown," 1 
and asserted that a spirit of discontent and dissatisfaction was widely- 
spread among the Indians in India. 

The truth of Dadabhai Naoroji's statement does not seem to have 
been realized. 2 In part it was obscured by the fact that Lord Curzon 
was approaching the completion of his twelve labors and the Anglo-Indian 
community shared to a great extent the irritation which they had 
produced. 

The spark that started a series of passionate protests and was the 
precursor ultimately of an organized program of violence was the parti- 
tion of Bengal, one of the last of Lord Curzon's administrative reforms. 
A large area of Eastern Bengal was separated from the original province 
and added to Assam, which in turn was raised to the grade of a lieutenant- 
governorship under the title of Eastern Bengal and Assam. 

The Bangalis 3 who were by far the most numerous and the most 
advanced of the races affected, were divided between two separate 
administrations, and they resented the obliterations of the old historic 
province of Bengal Proper by an artificial arrangement, which appeared 
to have been designed with the single idea of administrative con- 
venience. A section of the Bengalis also entertained the belief that this 
scheme of administration was in reality intended to destroy their predomi- 
nance in the Lower Provinces, and that it had been carried through on 
the principle divide et impera; and this belief helped to swell the tide of 
resentment. 

The motive 4 for partition may have been merely administrative but 
many found it difficult to believe that it was never regarded by Lord 
Curzon as a possible way of weakening the political influence of the 
Bengalis, or as a means of benefiting the large Mohammedan population 
of Eastern Bengal. Bengal Hindus persuaded themselves that partition 
was a political move on the part of the government aimed at them. 
In Eastern Bengal and Assam the Hindus believed that it was a plot 
hatched in favor of the Mohammedans, and hence the gradual stirring 

1 Bombay Gazette (Dec. 24, 1904), p. 11, col. 1. 

2 Englishman, March 16, 1905, p. 10, col. 4; p. 11, col. 4. 

3 "The Changes in India and After," Dublin Review CL (Jan.-April, 1912), 290. 

4 A. E. R., "Some Indian Problems," Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, 
3d Ser., XXVI (July-Oct., 1908), 77. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 187 

up of the racial feeling in Eastern Bengal. This feeling was aggravated 
and made dangerous by the belief of the Hindus that government sided 
with the Mohammedans. The native press asserted that government 
officials even encouraged and abetted any violence on the part of Moham- 
medans toward Hindus. The known and well-tested impartiality of 
the English was of small avail against the wild statements and rumors. 
The government argument was that 

this so-called "Partition of Bengal" was rendered necessary by the over- 
whelming burden thrown upon the Bengal government through the ad- 
ministrative needs of an unwieldy and densely populated province. Even as 
reduced in size the province of Bengal covers 141,580 square miles with a 
population of fifty-four millions of people, or an area 20,000 miles greater than 
Great Britain and Ireland; and a population greater by twelve millions. 
These facts alone are sufficient to show the unreasonableness of the factious 
opposition raised by so many of the excitable educated Bengali Hindus, promi- 
nent among whom were Calcutta lawyers who feared that many of the legal 
cases that had hitherto come to them would be transferred to the courts at 
the headquarters of the enlarged province. 1 

The partition was announced on July 20, 1905. 2 On August 7, 1905, 
a meeting was held at the Calcutta Town Hall in protest. It was at 
this meeting that the Swadeshi Movement received its original impetus. 
In name it signified the promotion of indigenous commerce and manu- 
facturers. When no heed was given to the protests in the press and on 
the platform, and the partition duly went into effect on October 16, 1905, 
the Swadeshi Movement took on more and more of a political aspect, 
rapidly developing into a boycott of serious dimensions. In October 3 
there had been swadeshi riots at Calcutta, where merchants were dis- 
covered palming off European goods as Indian, and at Poona, where a 
bonfire was made of European goods. After the partition went into 
force the Bengalis went into mourning and inaugurated the practice of 
keeping "Partition Day" as an annual day of mourning. 4 Three 
thousand men went out on a demonstration strike in Calcutta. There 
was also a demonstration in Bombay. Schoolboys were particularly 
active in enforcing the boycott. 

'John Morley, "Signs of the Times in India," Edinburgh Review, CCVI (July- 
Oct., 1907), 294. 

2 Sir Donald Robertson, "Some Reflections on Modern India," Proceedings of 
the Royal Colonial Institute, XXXVIII (1906-7), p. 36. 

3 Bombay Gazette, October 14, 1905, p. 9, col. 3. 

4 Ibid., October 21, 1905, p. 11, col. 3; p. 12, col. 1. 



1 88 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

On the positive side there were some attempts at starting native- 
owned and -operated industries of one kind or another to supply domestic 
demand. Most of these came to grief, but some survived permanently 
after the occasion for them lost some of its stimulus by the repeal of 
the partition as one of the boons granted by the king at the durbar 
of 1911. 

There were, throughout the two Bengals, many areas in which the 
anti-British party established a reign of terror; 1 where the potter, 
washerman, and barber were afraid to serve those denounced as not 
complying with boycott ideals; where the man wearing clothes of British 
manufacture was liable to have them torn from his back; and where 
the dealer in imported cloth, salt, or sugar was liable to have his goods 
destroyed and his shop set on fire. The police records of the two Bengals 
for four years were filled with cases of this nature, and the number of 
cases reported was probably only a small proportion of the total. The 
discontent speedily spread into the Punjab and the Mahratta country, 
especially Poona, which had for some time been a center for the restless 
spirits of India. 

On November 25, 1905, Lord Minto landed in Bombay to succeed 
Lord Curzon as viceroy. He perceived the situation and set to work to 
devise reforms. In his own words: 

When I took up the reins of government as viceroy in the late autumn of 
1905, all Asia was marvelling at the victories of Japan over a European power— 
their effects were far reaching— new possibilities seemed to spring into exist- 
ence — there were indications of popular demands in China, in Persia, in Egypt, 
and in Turkey, there was an awakening of the Eastern world, and though to 
outward appearances India was quiet, in the sense that there was at that 
moment no visible acute political agitation, she had not escaped the general 
infection, and before I had been in the country a year I shared the view of 
my colleagues that beneath a seemingly calm surface there existed a mass of 
smothered political discontent, much of which was thoroughly justifiable and 
due to causes which we were called upon to examine. We heartily recognized 
the loyalty of the masses of the people of India, and we were not prepared 
to suppress new but not unnatural aspirations without examination. You 
cannot sit on a safety-valve no matter how round the boiler may be. Some- 
thing had to be done and we decided to increase the powers and expand the 
scope of the Act of 1 892. 2 

1 H. C. Streatfield, "A Bengal Civilian's View of the Indian Deportation," 
Nineteenth Century Review, LXVI (July-Dec, 1909), 20. 

2 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XL VIII 
(Jan. 25, 1910), 48. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 189 

In August, 1906, Lord Minto, in pursuance of this feeling, issued a 
minute. Of it he said: 

It was based entirely on views I had myself formed of the position of 
affairs in India. It was due to no suggestions from home. Whether it was 
good or bad, I am entirely responsible for it. It dealt with the conditions it 
appeared to me the government of India had then to consider and as it is 
answerable for much that has followed in its wake, my honorable colleagues 
will perhaps allow me to read it to them. This is what I then wrote: 

"I feel sure my colleagues will agree with me that Indian affairs and 
methods of Indian administration have never attracted more public attention 
in India and at home than at the present moment. The reasons for their doing 
so are not far to seek. The growth of education, which British rule has done 
so much to encourage, is bearing fruit. Important classes of the population are 
learning to realize their own position, to estimate for themselves their own 
intellectual capacities and to compare their claims for an equality of citizen- 
ship with those of a ruling race, whilst the directing influences of political life 
at home are simultaneously in full accord with the advance of political thought 
in India. 

"To what extent the people of India are as yet capable of serving in all 
branches of administration, to what extent they are individually entitled to a 
share in the political representation of their country, to what extent it may 
be possible to weld together the traditional sympathies and antipathies of 
many different races and different creeds, and to what extent the great heredi- 
tary rulers of native states should assist to direct imperial policy are problems 
which the experience of future years can alone gradually solve. 

"But we, the government of India, cannot shut our eyes to present condi- 
tions. The political atmosphere is full of change, questions are before us 
which we cannot afford to ignore, and which we must attempt to answer, and 
to me it would appear all-important that the initiative should emanate from 
us, that the government of India should not be put in the position of appearing 
to have its hands forced by agitation in this country or by pressure from home, 
that we should be the first to recognize surrounding conditions and to place 
before His Majesty's government the opinions which personal experience 
and a close touch with the every-day life of India entitle us to hold. 

"This view I feel sure my colleagues share with me. Mr. Morley cordially 
approves it and in pursuance of it announced on my authority, in his recent 
budget speech, my intention of appointing a committee from the viceroy's 
Council to consider the question of possible reforms. Such inquiries have, 
as you are aware, taken place before. There was the Commission, over which 
Sir Charles Atchison presided, to inquire into the employment of Indians in 
the public services and we have also the notable report of the committee 
appointed by Lord Dufferin to consider proposals for the reconstruction of 
legislative councils on a representative basis [1888] over which Sir George 
Chesney presided, and of which the present Lord Macdonnell was secretary. 



190 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

It is curious to see from that report how similar conditions and arguments 
were then to what they are now, with the one great exception that we have 
now to deal with a further growth of nearly twenty years of increasing political 
aspirations. 

"But though increased representation is still the popular cry it was in 1888, 
other demands, or rather suggestions, are shaping themselves out of a fore- 
shadowed metamorphosis. We are told of a council of princes, of an Indian 
member of the viceroy's Executive Council, of an Indian member of the secre- 
tary of state's Council, and in addition to the older claims put forward on 
behalf of increased representation on the legislative councils, we are asked to 
consider new procedure as to presentation of the budget to the viceroy's 
Legislative Council, a prolongation of the budget debate, and further oppor- 
tunity for financial discussion. As to possibilities such as these, I would be 
grateful for the opinion of the committee I hope to appoint, limiting myself 
for the present to only one opinion, that in any proposal for the increase of 
representation it is absolutely necessary to guard the important interests 
existing in the country as expressed in paragraph 7, page 3, of the report of 
Sir Charles Aitchison's committee, viz.: (a) the interests of the hereditary 
nobility and landed classes who have a great permanent stake in the country; 
(b) the interests of the trading, professional, and agricultural classes; (c) the 
interests of the planting and commercial European community; and (d) the 
interests of stable and effective administration. 

"The subjects I should propose to refer to the committee are: (a) a council 
of princes, and if this is not possible, might they be represented on the viceroy's 
Legislative Council; (b) an Indian member of the viceroy's Council; (c) in- 
creased representation on the Legislative Council of the viceroy and of local 
governments; (d) prolongation of the budget debate, procedure as to presenta- 
tion of the budget, and powers of moving amendments. 

"This minute is circulated for the information of members of the Council 
from whom I shall be glad to receive any suggestions or expressions of opinion 
which they may desire to make and which will be communicated to the com- 
mittee. When the committee has reported, their report will be laid before 
the Council for full consideration." 

That note elicited valuable opinions and was fully discussed in Council 
and, though, as you are aware, its suggestions were not accepted in their 
entirety by the government of India, it laid the foundation of the first scheme 
of reform they submitted to the secretary of state. 1 

As the discontent grew stronger and more general, wide divergencies 
of opinion began to appear. Gradually they coallesced into two types 
of thought, which came to be characterized as the moderates and extrem- 
ists. One believed that the best prospects of India lay in a gradual 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XLVIII 
(Jan. 25, 1910), 49-50- 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 19 1 

constitutional acquisition of successive privileges from the English 
government, until ultimately India should become a new self-governing 
colony of the British Empire. The other was anti-British through and 
through and sought the entire expulsion of England as soon as possible 
from India. It was usually preferred that it be without violence, but 
England must be made to go at any cost. 

In the Congress group itself the same cleavage of thought began to 
develop early in 1906, and the two factions, the moderates and the 
extremists, began to take form. This became evident some months 
before the Congress of 1906 at Calcutta. The fight centered on the 
presidency. Babu Bhupendranath Boss, secretary of the People's 
Association and leader of the moderates, finally secured the office for 
Dadabhai Naoroji, instead of Tilak, the candidate of the extremists 
under the leadership of Bipin Chandra Pal. 

"The Grand Old Man of India's" prestige succeeded in holding the 
factions together, but the tone of the sessions was such as to lead the 
Englishman to say: "The Congress had been captured by the extrem- 
ists." 1 The struggle came to a climax the following year when in 
December, at the Surat session, the moderates of the Congress had a 
desperate battle with the extremists over the control of the Congress, 
which finally ended in a free-for-all fight. 

Most significant of all, in 1906 the Mohammedans abruptly aban- 
doned their policy of political inactivity. There were several reasons 
for this. The number of educated among them had tremendously 
increased. Syad Ahmed Khan was dead. Politics were in the air as 
never before in India. Moreover, they had grown alarmed and felt 
compelled to engage in political life to protect their interests from the 
Hindus. 

Early in December (1906) the Nawab of Dacca issued a circular to 
the principal Mohammedans of India detailing a scheme for the forma- 
tion of a "Moslem All-India Confederacy," the chief objects of which 
were to be 

to support, whenever possible, all measures emanating from the government 
and to protect the cause and advance the interests of our co-religionists through- 
out the country, to controvert the growing influence of the so-called Indian 
National Congress, which has a tendency to misinterpret and subvert British 
rule in India, or which might lead to that deplorable situation, and to enable 
our young men of education, who for want of such an association have joined 

1 Englishman, December 27, 1906, p. 14. 



192 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

the Congress camp, to find scope, according to their fitness and ability, for 
public life. 1 

In the circular the Nawab went on to say: 

There is, I believe, some disinclination to state our objects and reasons 
in this bold and blunt manner, as it will, it is contended, arouse the ire and 
anger of our Hindu brethren. But I think the time has come when we must 
no longer mince matters, and if we really desire to serve our Hindu brethren 
and wish them to be a sure and safe support to the British rule, we must not 
stand upon sentiment — it is a mere sentiment that is causing such havoc and 
misery in the matter of the present partition of Bengal — and the question 
that we as Mohammedans must honestly discuss and decide is, whether the 
policy now openly declared by those who are termed "extremists" is one 
conducive to the maintenance of the British Raj, and if, as we must hold, it 
is not, we must then consider whether those gentlemen forming the extremist 
party do or do not form part and parcel of the Indian National Congress, and 
unless the Congress in open and public assembly and by a resolution dissociates 
itself with the views of this party, we Mohammedans cannot countenance or 
be associated with the Congress. We are sorry, but we cannot deny that this 
so-called Indian National Congress has become a potent voice in the councils 
of the country, but we must, therefore, as loyal and true subjects of the British 
Raj, do our utmost to controvert and thwart that influence which it has 
attained when we find it working for the destruction of all that we hold dear. 

The circular — which concluded with an appeal to all Mohammedans 
who intended going to the Educational Conference at Dacca to go fully 
authorized to discuss the scheme detailed at a special political conference, 
and to others to communicate their views in writing to the Nawab 
Mohsin-ul-mulk — met with a good deal of criticism on account of the 
hostility to the Indian National Congress which it advocated. 

At the Educational Conference 2 a motion was carried unanimously 
for the formation of an " All-India Moslem League" to promote among 
the Mohammedans of India feelings of loyalty to the British government 
and to remove any misconceptions that may arise as to the intentions of 
government with regard to any of the measures; to protect and to 
advance the political rights and interests of the Mohammedans of India 
and respectfully to represent their needs and aspirations to government 
and to prevent the rise among the Mohammedans in India of any feelings 
of hostility toward other communities without prejudice to the other 
objects of the League. A strong Provisional Committee was formed 

'Edward E. Lang, "The All-India Moslem League," Comtemporary Review, 
XCII (July-Dec, 1907), 345-46. 
2 Ibid., p. 344. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 1 93 

with power to add to its number, and the joint secretaries appointed 
were the nawabs, Vicar-ul-mulk and Mohsin-ul-mulk, two of the most 
important members of the Mohammedan community and men of great 
intellectual capacity. They were charged to frame a constitution within 
four months and convene a meeting of Indian Mohammedans to lay 
the constitution before them. The Committee did their work and in 
September, 1907, the All-India Moslem League assembled at Lucknow 
for its first session. 

In England the agitation had its reflection in articles on "Unrest 
in India." They presented as a rule the conventional view, that the 
unrest did not amount to much and was only a sentiment at most 
cherished by some of those very few whom England had made the 
mistake of educating. At all events it must be firmly suppressed. 
Some, however, were more discerning. 

In India the tension steadily became more severe, but Lord Minto, 
at the same time, persevered in his reform measures. On August 24, 
1907, the government of India dispatched a circular to the different 
local governments asking opinions on a reform program which had been 
elaborated from Lord Minto's minute of August, 1906. It dealt in 
detail with the proposal for an imperial advisory council, and then 
treated in more general terms of the feasibility of provincial advisory 
councils, the enlargement of the imperial and provincial legislative 
councils, the discussion of the budget in them, and the Mohammedan 
representation in both. The main outlines proposed were very like 
those of Lord Minto's minute of 1906 and, except for the advisory 
councils, like the proposals finally adopted. The opinions of the govern- 
ment and various individuals were included with an elaborate dispatch 
to the secretary of state, dated October 1, 1908. They were published 
as a Parliamentary Blue Book of over fifteen hundred pages. 1 

In England the secretary of state for India, Viscount Morley, was 
no less aware of the seriousness of the Indian situation, and perceived 
the necessity for readjustments. He not only gave hearty support to 
Lord Minto in India, but inaugurated measures of his own. The first 
of these was the admission of two natives to the Council of India. 

The Council at the time was supposed to have twelve members but 
in point of fact for several years it had not had more than eleven and 
usually ten. 2 At the moment there were only nine, although the secre- 
tary of state had recently made two appointments. This condition 

1 "Advisory and Legislative Councils, " Parliamentary Papers. East India, 1908. 

2 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., CLXXXI (1907), col. 430. 



194 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

would have made it possible to appoint two natives of India to the 
Council without more ado. It seemed best, however, to Viscount 
Morley to secure more formal approval from Parliament, and effect some 
other alterations which seemed desirable in the Council. .Accordingly 
he introduced a brief measure which was railroaded through Parliament 
during the closing hours of the session of 1907. 

In his explanation of the bill, Viscount Morley merely said that, 

When the government of India was transferred to the government of the 
Crown, the number of the members of the Council was fixed at fifteen, 
but since then for various reasons with which he need not trouble the House, 
the number had been reduced to twelve. Under present circumstances it 
had seemed to the government perfectly clear that it was desirable to have 
larger room for the representation of various interests which were becoming 
more and more important. Therefore they asked the House to increase the 
number of members of Council from twelve to fourteen. The secretary of 
state would not be obliged to appoint fourteen members but the Council must 
never consist of less than ten members. 1 

He then went on to deal with the requirements, that at the time of 
appointment a member must not have been absent from India more 
than five years, instead of twenty-five, and the reduction of the salary 
from 1,200 pounds to 1,000 pounds. The chief criticisms were those 
by Mr. A. J. Balfour, who objected to the reduction of pay, and Mr. 
C. J. O'Donnell, who said, "There was nothing he regarded with 
greater fear than the introduction of native members into the secre- 
tary of state's Council unless they were sure they were representative 
men." 2 

The bill contained no reference to natives of India. Viscount 
Morley, in speaking on Mr. Laidlaw's amendment to insert "that of 
the members of the Council two shall be natives of India and two others 
of not less than ten years' residencies in India who have not been in the 
service of the government," said: 

The Amendment proposed to do the very thing that all wise statesmanship 
forbid them to do, namely to set up racial standards. There ought to be no 
statutory recognition of the differences of race .... all our civilising processes 
depend upon softening those differences so far as they could do. On that 
ground he was unwilling to recognise in a statute such a word as race. 3 

The amendment was withdrawn. 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. CLXXIX (1907), cols. 1673-74. 

2 Ibid., col. 1676. 

3 Ibid., cols. 1979-80. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 195 

The bill 1 passed into law with a general hope that was expressed by- 
Lord Amp thill, 2 when he said: 

It is a step, a very decided step in the direction of meeting the hopes and 
wishes of those classes in India who, taught and inspired by ourselves to aim at 
political progress on Western lines, aspire to take a greater share in the govern- 
ment of India, and to exercise a larger influence on that government. 3 

Viscount Morley lost no time in availing himself of the approval 
implied in the act. He himself thus described his nominees: 

The first native members of this Council are (1) a Hindu, Mr. Krishna, 
Gobinda Gupta, who is a member of the Bengal Civil Service of thirty-four 
years' standing, and a member of the Board of Revenue; and (2) a Moham- 
medan, Mr. Saiyid Husain Bilgrami, a distinguished servant of the Nizam 
of Hyderabad, who has for many years been director of public instruction in 
that state, and who has also been a member of the viceroy's Legislative Council. 
Both these gentlemen are experienced administrators, and their admission to 
the Council of India should prove an undoubted benefits 

Native opinion was not enthusiastic. The Hindu, of Madras, 
represented it when it said editorially of the selection made that it came 
more or less as a surprise, as they had not been mentioned before, and 
their claims were not particularly strong. 5 It speculated whether R. C. 
Dutt's association with the Congress had cost him the place. 

1 The Council of India Act of 1907 was very brief consisting of but five sections. 
A summary follows: 

1. "The Council of India shall consist of such number of members not less than 
ten and not more than fourteen as the Secretary of State may from time to time 
determine." 

2. In Section 10 of the Government of India Act of 1858 the ten years' limit within 
which a member must at the time of his nomination have been in India was changed 
to five. 

3. In Section 13 of the same act the salary provision of 1,200 pounds was reduced 
to 1,000 pounds. 

4. In Section 2 of the Government of India Act of 1858, the term of office was 
changed from ten to seven years. 

5. "The Council of India Act of 1876 and Council of India Reduction Act of 
1889 are hereby repealed." 

2 The chronology of the Council of India Bill, 1907, was: In Commons, it was 
read the first time on July 25; second time on August 5; third time on August 6. 
In Lords it was read the first time on August 7; second time on August 15; third 
time on August 26. It received the royal assent on August 28. 

3 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. CLXXX (1907), col. 1565. 

4 J. Morley, "Signs of the Times in India," Edinburgh Review, CCVI (1907), 305. 
s Hindu, September 5, 1907, p. 1., col. 3. 



196 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The agitation was in no degree checked by the Council of India 
reform or the scheme presented by the minute of Lord Minto, both of 
which came at approximately the same time. As a matter of fact they 
attracted little attention. Later in 1907 Mr. Gokhale, speaking in the 
Imperial Legislative Council, said of the minute: 

If the honorable member expected that the publication of the government 
scheme of August last would allay the discontent in the country in any degree, 
he was bound to be disappointed. The scheme is neither large nor generous 
and in some respects is not a scheme of reform at all. Disappointment has 
intensified the prevailing feeling of discontent. As though this was not enough 
the language employed in explaining the proposals is in some places unneces- 
sarily offensive to certain classes. 1 

In India during 1907 the situation grew steadily worse. 2 Violence 
had begun before the circular was issued or the Council of India bill 
passed when serious riots suddenly broke out in Rawal Pindi in the 
Punjab, where there was general discontent at the land revenue assess- 
ments and conditions imposed on canal colonies. In connection with 
these, Lajapat Rai and Ajit Singh were arbitrarily deported to Mandalay 
under an old act of 1818. Later in 1907 serious riots occurred in Cal- 
cutta, when the police tried to break up a meeting and were beaten by 
rioters. Inquiry was boycotted by natives and produced no result. 
On December 6, 1907, an attempt was made to blow up the lieutenant 
governor's train. On December 23 Mr. Allen, a magistrate of Dacca, 
was shot but not killed, while going from the train to the boat at Goal- 
undo, by a Bengali who escaped. In March, 1908, Mr. Hickinbotham, 
a missionary, was shot but not killed by a Bengali while walking. 

Bipin Chandra Pal toured Madras, which had hitherto been quiet. 
In the Tinnevelly district he was arrested but released on appeal. A 
meeting to celebrate the event was prohibited but held. The leaders 
were arrested. The town and district rose, but were put down by troops. 

On April 30, 1908, at Mozufferpore in Bengal, a carriage with two 
English ladies was blown to pieces by a bomb intended for the judge, 
Mr. Kingsford. Two students were responsible. One, Khudra Ram 
Bose, was arrested. The other shot himself. Bose was executed. On 
June 22, a train near Kankinarah station was held up by a red lantern 
and a bomb thrown into a second-class compartment, resulting in serious 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XLVI 
(Nov. 1, 1907), 45. 

2 "The Writing on the Wall," Black-woods Magazine, Vol. CCVIII, September, 
1908, et seq. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 197 

injury to three European assistants in a jute factory. It was ascribed 
to vengeance for Bose. 

In July, journalist Tilak, who had been sentenced in 1897 by Sir 
Arthur Strachey to prison for eighteen months, was again sentenced to 
a prison term for an article in the Kesari. Serious riots by mill hands 
in Bombay and Nagpur followed the news of his conviction. 

On August 12, at Shamnagar near Calcutta on the Eastern Bengal rail- 
road, a bomb was thrown at a train. On August 13 two bombs were found 
outside Chandernagore (French) on the railroad embankment. During 
this time bombs were discovered in various places in Calcutta and a 
second attempt was made on the lieutenant governor's train. The most 
sensational discovery was that of a bomb factory in a garden house at 
Manicktellah in the heart of Calcutta. Thirty-two were arrested in 
connection with it. Explosives and books and the paraphernalia of a 
regular school were found in connection with it. 

The agitation was not confined to terrorism. There were songs 1 
like the "Bande Mataram" by S. M. Mitra, 2 which called forth a dispute 

1 A translation of one of the most popular of the songs, of which phonographic 
records were at one time proscribed, follows : 

"amar desh" (my motherland) 
By D. L. Roy 

O my Banga, O my Mother, O my nurse, O Country mine 

Why dishevelled are thy tresses, lusterless thy look divine ? 

For thy seat this lowly dusty, for raiment this thy tattered gear, 

When thy seventy million children call thee fondly "Mother dear." 

There's no pain, and there's no shame, and there's no grief, no sorrow's brand, 

When the seventy million voices sing in chorus "Motherland." 

Here arose Lord Buddha, Great, who opened Nirvan's gates above. 

Half the world still kneel before Him worshipping in fervent love. 

King Asoka spread his deeds from Kandahar to th'azure main 

Art thou not their country, Mother ? Of these Gods the holy fane. 

Once thy great victorious army conquered Lanka with such ease, 

Once thy ships sailed freely o'er the waters of the eastern seas. 

Once thy sons o'er Cheen, Japan, Thibet led their learned lore. 

Is it thus and is it thou in rags and weeping evermore ? 

Here the sky with Nimai's Kirtan, with "Mridangas" music rang. 

Raghu wrote his learned logic, chandidasa sweetly sang. 

Bravely fought Pratapaditya. Blessed be thy Mother's name. 

Blessed are we, if some drops of blood of theirs we still can claim. 

Though thy light Divine has vanished, and thy days are dark as night, 

Clouds will pass away and glory shine in lustre fresh and bright. 

Men we are and not mere sheep, We will revive thy glory grand. 

O my Goddess, O my life's goal, O my Heaven, My Motherland. 
— Bengalee, September 17, 1909, p. 5, col. 2; and ibid., December 10, 1908, 
p. s, col. 3. 

2 "Bande Mataram," East and West Magazine, V, Part 2, 1077 et seq; (A friend 
of Bengal), Fortnightly Review, XCV (191 1), 151. 



198 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

as to whether it was an invocation to "Mother Kali," the goddess of 
death and destruction, or a glorification of the "Motherland." What- 
ever its real meaning the phrase was adopted as a slogan in the agitation. 
Speeches 1 became more and more bitter. Plays, 2 books, and articles 3 
poured from the press. Every conceivable method was resorted to in 
order to spread the cult of Swaraj or self-government, which became the 
cry of the radicals. "Volunteers" were organized largely among the 

1 The following extracts from the reported speech of Mr. Subramania Sive, 
delivered before an audience of 1,500 people on February 23, 1908, at Tuticorin illus- 
trate the character of some of the speeches. 

"Seventeen thousand firearms were stolen from Fort William. The magistrate 
of Dacca was shot dead. The rulers could not detect these. While it is so it is a 
mere trick to say that England exists for protecting the natives of India." 

"Every year they take India's money from India, and leave behind currency 
note paper." 

"If the natives of India should shut up all their gates, the foreign government 
would suffer." 

"If five crores of us sacrifice ourselves annually we will certainly win Swaraj." 

"The well-to-do men among the natives of India are kind to their servants, 
whereas English merchants are very severe." 

"Japan won a victory over Russia as Japan was prepared to sacrifice twenty 
thousand souls." 

"There will be no Swaraj without the shedding of blood." 

"So all the Indians should overcome all the difficulties which might beset 
them." 

"If Indians whether strong or weak come forward boldly the foreign government 
will collapse, and Swaraj will be established." 

2 J. D. Rees, The Real India, p. 175. 

3 a) The following are extracts illustrative of the type of article and speech that 
characterized the movement. The first is a part of the articles in the Kesari for which 
Mr. Tilak was arrested and convicted. 

"The authorities have spread the false report that the bombs of the Bengalis 
are subversive of society. There is as wide a difference between the bombs in Europe 
desiring to destroy society, and the bombs in Bengal as between earth and heaven. 
There is an excess of patriotism at the roots of the bombs in Bengal, while the bombs 
in Europe are the product of hatred for selfish millionaires. The Bengalis are 
not anarchists but they have been brought to use the weapons of anarchists, that 
is all." 

The article went on to say that "new desires and new ambitions have arisen 
among the people and are gathering strength every day, " that the English were 
militarily weaker than the Mohammedan conquerors had been, and that the knowl- 
edge of how to manufacture bombs could not be taken away from the people. 
— Bombay Gazette, July 4, 1908, p. 12, col. 1. 

b) Mr. Adamson in urging the press law cited the following articles from an 
extra edition of the Yugantar, as a flagrant example. One referred to the partition 
of Bengal and said, "The ruthless knife of the butcher has severed in twain the 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 199 

students and boys. 1 They were active, ushering at the sessions of the 
Congress, assisting pilgrims, and maintaining order at the great religious 
festivals. They were the militant element of the movement, and were 
the enforcing power back of the boycott. Attempts were made to 
seduce the army. 

The government was driven to measures of repression. A Regulation 
of Meetings Ordinance was hurried into operation in May, 1907, and as 
soon as possible put into the form of a Prevention of Seditious Meetings 
Act. 2 This provided in Section 4 (1) that 

no public meeting for the furtherance of discussion of any subject likely 
to cause disturbance or public excitement or of any political subject or for 
the exhibition or distribution of any writing or printed matter relating to any 
subject shall be held in any proclaimed area. 

By Section 5 it was ordered that the 
district magistrate or the commissioner of police, as the case may be, may at 
any time by order in writing, of which public notice shall forthwith be 
given, prohibit any public meeting in a proclaimed area, if in his opinion such 
meeting is likely to promote sedition or to cause a disturbance of the public 
tranquillity. 



throbbing body of the motherland " and makes frantic appeals to all sons of the soil to 
combine and avenge the atrocity. 

Another advised the Bengalis to resort to red as the color of revenge and to sing 
the hymn of retaliation: "A hundred heads for one head to avenge the murder of 
the motherland." 

Another stated that a huge sacrificial fire should be lit up and fed not with ghee 
but with blood. 

Another advocates that Indians should make use of blacksmiths' tools, lathes, 
and slings and stones to overmatch the enemies of their country. 

Another said that "if by boycott we can gain our desires we can only be said 
to postpone for the present our resolve to shed blood." 

Another said, "if we desire independence we should be ready to be massacred 
by our rulers so that their sword may become blunt." 

Another exhorted men to die after killing, as therein the glory of dying would 
be enhanced. 

Another urged the sacrifice of life for liberty, for "is it not a fact that Kali will 
not be propitiated without blood ? " 

Another advocated the methods of nihilists and the use of bombs. — Proceedings 
of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XL VII (June 8, 1908), 11. 

c) The seditious publications were not confined to India. Among others the 
government later prohibited the introduction into India of Justice, the Gaelic 
American, and the Indian Sociologist. — J. D. Rees, The Real India, p. 166. 

1 J. D. Rees, op. cit., pp. 178-79- 

2 Acts of the Governor -General of India in Council (Nov. 1, 1907). Act VI of 1907. 



200 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The act was passed in October and was to apply to such parts of 
India as the government might proclaim it in. As a matter of fact, 1 
it was proclaimed November i, 1907, in Eastern Bengal and Assam 
alone, and there but in the district of Bakarganj, but on January 13, 
1910, it was extended to Bombay, Bengal, and the United Provinces. 
It was, however, used very sparingly. In 191 1 it was replaced by a new 
act of practically the same provisions. 

Its effect was described in these words : 

There is now almost a lull in political life in almost every part of India. 
Whatever be the case in presidency towns, though even there one does not 
hear of meetings for discussion of public questions as much as before, in the 
districts it looks as if all public life had ceased. The local authorities were 
never in favour of political movements even when the Act was not in existence. 
Now they are decidedly against them and no one ventures to convene a meet- 
ing likely to irritate them. In some cases meetings for social and religious 
reform have also come under the ban. They are not held for fear of incurring 
the official displeasure. 2 

The effect really, however, was apparently to drive the discontent 
underground. The violence grew worse. As a result of the bomb 
explosions and discoveries, an Explosive Substances Act was passed on 
June 8, 1908. 3 It provided penalties up to transportation for twenty 
years, or imprisonment up to seven years, plus a fine for attempting to 
cause an explosion or for making or keeping explosives with intent to 
endanger life or property. 

On the same day as the passage of the Explosive Substances Act, 
December 11, 1908, an act for the prevention of incitements to murder 
and other offences in newspapers was passed, 4 permitting a magistrate 
under the authority of the local government to confiscate any paper 
as well as the press which printed it, that in his opinion contained 
any incitement to murder or any offence against the Explosive Sub- 
stances Act. 

On December 11, 1908, still another act was passed to provide for the 
more speedy trial of certain offences, principally political violence, and 
for the prohibition of associations dangerous to the public peace. 5 

1 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XLIX 
(1910), 439. 

2 An Indian Thinker, "Liberty of Speech and Thought in India," East and 
West Magazine, IX (July-Dec, 1910), 962. 

3 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India, XL VII, 
2; Acts of the Governor-General of India in Council, 1908, Act VI, pp. 394 et seq. 

« Ibid., Act VIII. s ibid., Act XIV. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 201 

On the other hand, the government was not deterred from the 
reforms it had set out to accomplish. Viscount Morley formulated the 
attitude of the government: 

There are two paths of folly in these matters. One is to regard all Indian 
matters — Indian procedure and Indian policy — as if it were Great Britain or 
Ireland, and to insist that all the robes and apparel that suit Great Britain 
or Ireland must necessarily suit India. The other is to think that all you 
have got to do is what I see suggested, to my amazement, in English print- 
to blow a certain number of men from guns and then your business will be 
done. Either of these paths of folly leads to as great disaster as the other 

I put two plain questions to Your Lordships. I am sick of all the retro- 
grade commonplaces about the weakness of concession to violence and so on. 
Persevering in our plan of reform is not a concession to violence. Reforms 
that we have publicly announced, adopted and worked out for more than 
two years — is no concession to violence to persist in these reforms. It is 
simply standing to your guns. A number of gentlemen, of whom I wish to 
speak with all respect, addressed a very courteous letter to me the other day 
that appeared in the public prints, exhorting me to remember that oriental 
countries inevitably and invariably interpret kindness as fear. I do not 
believe it. The founder of Christianity arose in an oriental country, and 
when I am told that Orientals always mistake kindness for fear, I will say 
that I do not believe that any more than I believe the stranger saying of 
Carlyle that, after all, the fundamental question between any two human 
beings is— "Can I kill thee or canst thou kill me?" I do not agree that any 
organized society has ever subsisted upon either of those principles or that 
brutality is always present in the relations between human beings 

My first question is this. There are alternative courses open to us. We 
can either withdraw our reforms or we can persevere in them. Which would be 
the more flagrant sign of weakness, to go steadily on with your policy of reform 
in spite of bombs, or to let yourself openly be forced by bombs and murder 
clubs to drop your policy ? 

My second question is — Who would be the best pleased if I were to 
announce to Your Lordships that the government has determined to drop 
the reforms ? It is notorious that those who would be the best pleased would 
be the extremists and irreconcilables because they know very well that for us 
to do anything to soften estrangement and appease alienation between the 
European and native populations would be the very best way that could be 
adopted to deprive them of fuel for their sinister and mischievous designs. 1 

Accordingly, after a careful consideration of the proposals of the 
government of India embodied in its dispatch and papers of 1908, 
Viscount Morley on November 27 of the same year formulated his 

1 Parliamentary Debates, 4th Ser., Vol. CXCVIII (Dec. 7-21, 1908), cols. 1977-79. 



202 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

opinions on the proposals in a lengthy dispatch to the government of 
India. The following February he brought in the Indian Councils 
Act of 1909, and in due time after some slight amendments it passed 
into law. 

In the midst of the debate on this bill Viscount Morley put into 
effect the second of his measures, the appointment of a native member 
to the Executive Council of the viceroy. This reform had been one of 
those proposed by Lord Minto in his minute of 1906. In many respects 
it was the most revolutionary of all the reforms. The Executive Council 
of the viceroy corresponded in its functions very closely to the English 
Cabinet. The admission of a native to it was equivalent to storming 
one of the main strongholds of the bureaucracy. It, however, required 
no authorization from Parliament. 

Viscount Morley said on this subject: 

If this Bill were rejected by Parliament it would be a great and grievous 
disaster to peace and contentment in India, but it would not prevent the 
secretary of state the next morning from advising His Majesty to appoint an 
Indian member. The members of the viceroy's Executive Council are 
appointed by the Crown. 1 

Viscount Morley lost no time acting on this statement. Without 
waiting for the passage of the Indian Councils Act, in March, 1909, 2 
he appointed Mr. A. P. Sinha 3 to be the legal member of the Executive 
Council of the viceroy. Mr. Sinha was one of the most successful of the 
lawyers of Bengal, and in every way qualified to fill the place. The 
selection was generally applauded. The Hindu, of Madras, summarized 
the general feeling, when it said, "The Indian public will receive with 
feelings of profound satisfaction and deep gratitude the news of the 
appointment by His Majesty the King of the Hon. Mr. S. P. Sinha as 
the legal member of the governor-general's Council." 

Five months after the appointment of Mr. Sinha, the Indian Councils 
Act of 1909 4 received the royal assent. It was the last of the Morley- 

1 Parliamentary Debates, Lords, Vol. I (Feb. 16-May 26, 1909), cols. 122-23. 

2 Ibid., Commons, Vol. Ill (1909), col. 29. 

s Mr. Sinha only retained the position for one year. He resigned in 19 10 to 
attend to his personal affairs. His place was taken by Mr. Saiyed Ali Imam, a 
Mohammedan, a fact which may have had some connection with his selection. 
Mr. Sinha was a Hindu, though not a Brahmin. — Bengalee, October 29, 1910, p. 5, 
cols. 2-3. 

* The act is published in full in P. Mukherji, op. cit., pp. 202-7. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 203 

Minto reforms. 1 It provided that legislative councils existing or 
subsequently created instead of consisting entirely of appointed members 
should also include members elected under regulations to be framed under 
the act. A maximum limit was placed on the number of additional 
members in each council, varying from sixty in the case of the Imperial 
Council to thirty for the Punjab, Burma, and future councils. 

In the case of the councils of Madras and Bombay, there were to be 
four ordinary members, at least two of which should have served the 
Crown in India for twelve years. The governor in each case was given 
a casting vote, and the governor-general in council with the approval of 
the secretary of state in council had the power to create new legislative 
councils and prescribe the necessary regulations for elections. 

The sixty additional members 2 of the Imperial Legislative Council 
under the regulations were to consist of twenty-five elected and thirty- 
five nominated by the government. Of the latter not more than twenty- 
eight were to be officials. Three were to be selected, one from the Indian 
Commercial Community, one from the Mohammedan community of the 
Punjab, and one from the landholders of the Punjab. 

The most important provisions were those specifying the electorates 
because the securing of suitable electoral bodies has been the great stum- 
bling-block of all self-government efforts in India. The non-official 
additional members of the different provincial councils were to elect eleven 
of the twenty-five. Of these, Madras, Bombay, Bengal, and the United 
Provinces chose two each; the Punjab, Burma, and Eastern Bengal 
one each. The district councils in the Central Provinces elected one. 
The landholders of Madras, Bombay, Bengal, the United Provinces, 
Eastern Bengal and Assam, and the Central Provinces each elected one, 
or six in all. The Mohammedans of Madras, Bombay, Bengal, the 
United Provinces, and Eastern Bengal and Assam, each chose one, 
making five in all. The Bengal and the Bombay Chambers of Commerce 
elected one each. 

Elected members were required to be male British subjects with 
clear criminal and bankruptcy records. Debarred lawyers and dismissed 

1 The following is the chronology of the passage of the Indian Councils Act of 
1909 through Parliament. 

In the House of Lords : first reading, February 27, 1909; second reading, February 
24, 1909; third reading, March n, 1909. In the House of Commons: second read- 
ing April 1, 1909; third reading, April 26, 1909. Amendments of Lords concurred 
on May 19. Royal assent on May 25, 1909. — Parliamentary Debates, 1909. See Index. 
' 2 "Executive and Legislative Councils," Parliamentary Papers, East India 
1909, Nov. 2, Sec. 14, p. 1; "Revised Regulations," 1912, p. 337. 



204 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

public servants, and persons undesirable in the eyes of the governor- 
general in council were declared ineligible. The only requirement for 
the voters was that they be mentally competent adult males. 

The regulations were first issued on November 15, 1909. They 
were revised in 191 2, but the changes then effected were very nearly all 
in unimportant details. The most important were the result of the 
repeal of the partition of Bengal, the creation of a new legislative council 
in Bihar and Orissa, and the alterations made in the legislative councils 
of Bengal and Assam. In 191 2 all officials were also disqualified for 
election. 

The most important features of the Indian Councils Act of 1909 
and the regulations promulgated thereunder were: (1) the extension of 
the right to discuss the budget, and the concession of the right to intro- 
duce resolutions; 1 (2) the extension of the right of interpellation to 
include supplementary questions; (3) the non-official majority on the 
provincial councils; (4) the official majority or bloc in the Imperial 
Legislative Council; (5) the Mohammedan minority representation 
provisions; (6) the dropping of the proposed advisory councils; (7) the 
authorization of executive councils in other provinces than Madras and 

Bombay. 

What was generally regarded as the most revolutionary of the 
concessions was the right to move resolutions in the councils, both for 
matters of general interest and in connection with the budget discussion. 
This reform was a development of (d) of Lord Minto's original proposals, 
which read: "(d) Prolongation of the budget debate. Procedure as to 
presentation of the budget, and powers of moving amendments." 

The best explanation of the purposes back of the reform is contained 
in Sections 57, 58, and 59 of the government of India reform dispatch 
of 1908. It says: 

Section 57 By the act of 1861 under which the present legislative 

bodies were constituted discussion was confined to legislative proposals actually 
before the council in the form of bills. In 1892 this limitation was relaxed 

1 Under the regulations framed for the carrying out of this provision the discussion 
of general matters was permitted on any subject not in the list proscribed by the 
act of 1 86 1, or affecting the relations with foreign governments, or the native states, 
or cases pending in the courts. 

Any resolution on a general subject could be introduced but all of them were 
required to be clearly phrased specific recommendations, without arguments, infer- 
ences, ironical expressions, or defamatory statements, and must not refer to any indi- 
vidual except in his official capacity.— "Executive and Legislative Councils." Pub- 
lished in full in Parliamentary Papers, East India, Vol. X (1909), No. 24, p. 7. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 205 

to the extent of allowing debate on the annual financial statement, although 
no legislation was involved and in this debate it is permissible for members 
to draw attention to any matter they please, whether it arises directly out of 
the budget proposals or not. But a general debate of this character can never 
be satisfactory. Members do not know beforehand the subjects which are to 
be brought forward by their colleagues, the discussion is necessarily of a 
desultory character, and the absence of notice not uncommonly prevents the 
official members from giving full information in answer to questions that are 
raised. 

We are of the opinion that the time has come when there should be further 
facilities for debate. We think that members should have opportunities 
for placing their views on public questions before the government, and we are 
impressed with the benefits which both the government and the educated 
public would derive from the well-ordered discussion of administrative subjects 
in the legislative councils, either on reference from the head of the government 
or at the instance of a private member. Such discussion would give the 
government an opportunity of making their view of a question known, and of 
explaining the reasons which had led them to adopt a particular line of action. 
We therefore propose that power should be given by statute for members to 
move resolutions on matters of general public importance, subject to the 
checks to which we shall presently refer. So far as the educated public are 
concerned, there can be little doubt that the right to move resolutions on such 
questions, and to argue these in a regular debate, will be welcomed as a very 
great concession, that it will be resorted to freely, and that it will tend to bring 
about more intimate relations between the official and non-official members. 
We think that the resolutions should be in the form of recommendations to the 
government, because this form expresses the constitutional position more 
precisely and emphasises the fact that the decision must in any case rest with 
the government and not with the Council. In the event of a resolution not 
being accepted by the government an opportunity would be taken of explaining 
their reasons. 

Sec. 58. This subject was not included among those which Your Lord- 
ship authorized us to put before local governments and our letter of August 24, 
1907, contained no reference to it. But it is a reform to which we attach great 
importance. In support of it we would point out that a similar proposal was 
put forward in 1888 by Sir George Chesney's committee in reference to pro- 
vincial councils. They recommended that in addition to legislation it should 
be one of the functions of the local councils to originate advice and suggestions 
on any subject connected with internal administration and that their views 
should be embodied in the form of a memorandum addressed to the head of the 
government. They advised, however, that it should not be permissible to 
propose resolutions relating to subjects removed from the cognizance of the 
provincial legislative councils by Section 43 of the Councils Act of 1861, which 



206 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

forbids them, except with the previous sanction of the governor-general, "to 
make regulations or to take into consideration any law or regulation relating 
to the public debt, customs, and imperial taxes, coin, bills, and notes, post- 
office, and telegraph; altering the penal code; religion; army and navy, 
patents or copyright; foreign relations. That proposal was not adopted at 
the time, and may have been premature in the conditions which then existed, 
at the least it had the high authority of the members of the committee. 

Sec. 59. The discussion of administrative questions can, however, only 
be permitted subject to certain rules and restrictions which must be laid down. 
We do not feel ourselves in a position at the present stage to make exhaustive 
enumeration of these and we anticipate that as has been the case in the House 
of Commons, actual experience will lead to framing of standing orders designed 
to meet the exigencies of debate. 1 

Lord Morley simply approved these proposals in these words : 2 
Section 31. Special importance attaches to rules as to the discussion of 
the imperial budget, and I recognize with much satisfaction the liberality of 
the proposals that you have placed before me. The changes 3 under this head 
constitute a notable step in the direction of giving to the representatives of 
Indian opinion a part in the most important operation of the political year. 

Closely related to the reform in the matter of resolutions was the 
extension of the right of interpellation to include the asking of supple- 

1 P. Mukherji, op. cit., pp. 255 et seq. 

2 Ibid., p. 279. 

3 The regulations to carry out the provision regarding the discussion of the budget 
forbade the discussion of the following heads: 

A. Revenue : stamps, customs, assessed taxes, tribute from native states, courts, 
army, marine, military works. — All purely provincial revenue and revenue accru- 
ing from divided heads in the provinces possessing legislative councils. 

B. Expenditure: assignments and compensations, interest on the debt, ecclesias- 
tical, territorial and political pensions, state railways, major works, interest on the 
debt, army, marine, military works, special defenses, all statutory charges. — All 
purely provincial expenditure and expenditure accruing under divided heads in 
provinces possessing legislative councils. 

In addition, all discussion of foreign relations and relations with the native states, 
and all matters under adjudication in the courts was forbidden. 

In regard to resolutions it was required that they be in the form of specific recom- 
mendations to the government, clearly phrased and without arguments, inferences, 
or ironical or defamatory statements. They were also forbidden to challenge the 
accuracy of the figures in the financial statement, and required to be relevant to some 
statement therein. A two days' notice was required for all resolutions, and the 
president might disallow any he deemed contrary to the public interests. 

The regulations are published in full in "Executive and Legislative Councils," 
Parliamentary Papers, East India, X (1909), 1. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 207 

mentary questions. Lord Morley said of it in his dispatch to the 
government of India of November 27, 1908 : l 

Section 30. In respect of rules on the asking of questions 2 1 have come to 
the conclusion that subject to such restrictions as may be found requisite in 
practice and to the existing general powers of the president, the asking of 
supplementary questions met by formal replies must inevitably tend to become 
unreal and ineffective, and in an assembly in which under proper safeguards 
free discussion and debate is permitted and encouraged there can be no efficient 
reason for prohibiting that method of eliciting information and expressing 
indirectly the opinion and wishes of the questioners. 

Regarding the working of the resolution and interpellation changes 
the Parliamentary Committee of 191 8 made the following estimate: 

The fact that nearly twice as many questions were asked in 191 7 as in 191 1 
shows that serious value is attached to the right of interrogation. Supple- 
mentary questions can at present be asked only by the author of the original 
question; they have not been numerous but there is a desire to extend the 
right of putting them to any member of the Council. At the same time it 
cannot be said that the right of interrogation has been abused though there 
has been a tendency to ask for information which could be ascertained from 
published reports, to require elaborate statistical information which is of no 
practical value, and also to ask questions which would appropriately be put in 
local councils. 

The right to move resolutions on matters of general importance and on 
the financial statement was conceded in 1909. The view taken at the time 
that this concession was perhaps the most important of all the changes has 
been justified by experience. In all 168 resolutions were moved in the council 
up to the end of the year 191 7; of these 24 were accepted by government, 
68 were withdrawn, and 76 were rejected either with or without a division. 
These figures by themselves do not give a true impression of the real effect 
of the resolutions. In some cases the mover withdraws a resolution because 
he is convinced by the government reply that his proposal is unsound; but 

1 Bengalee, December 18, 1908, p. 7, cols. 1-6; P. Mukherji, also, op. cit., p. 279. 

2 The regulations governing the asking of questions forbade interrogations about 
foreign relations or dealings with the native states or any matter under adjudication 
in the courts. All questions were required to be framed as mere requests for informa- 
tion, and could not be of excessive length or contain arguments, inferences, ironical 
inferences, or defamatory statements or refer to anything but the official character 
of the persons concerned. Hypothetical questions or expressions of opinion were 
forbidden. In regard to matters under controversy with the secretary of state only 
questions as to fact were permitted. Two days' notice was required. Any question 
might be disallowed by the president on the grounds of public interest. — Parliamen- 
tary Papers, East India, X (1909), 2 et seq; P. Mukherji, op. cit. 



208 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

it more often happens that a resolution is withdrawn because, though the 
government may for some technical or financial reasons not be able to accept 
the resolution in the form in which or at the time when it is moved, the spokes- 
men of the government have indicated that its attitude towards the mover's 
object is favorable. Again, many resolutions have been rejected either in 
pursuance of some settled policy or else because the government felt it unwise 
to accept them without inquiry; but the discussions have led to re-examination 
of the questions in issue, and at times to an ultimate change of policy as 
happened indeed in the case of compulsory education, and the treatment of 
persons dealt with under the Defence of India Act, which were both questions 
on which opinion was alive and active. A rough classification of the resolu- 
tions shows that some 73 can be described as fructuous. 1 

In the provincial councils, 2 the right of interpellation has naturally 
been used more freely than in the Indian Legislative Council. In the 
United Provinces Council the number of questions rose from 218 in 1910 
to 458 in 19 16, and in Bengal the increase has also been remarkable. 
In Madras we understand the number of questions has been even 
greater. One local government estimates that 20 per cent of the ques- 
tions asked in the Council relate to information already published, and 
a general tendency to ask for unfruitful statistics is reported. On the 
other hand, questions have often served the purpose of resolutions in 
eliciting a statement of the government's policy, and it is, we believe, 
generally recognized by modern opinion that the government endeavors 
to answer reasonable inquiries with reasonable fullness. 

In the provincial councils also 

there is abundant evidence that the right to move resolutions is valued; 
and that the number of resolutions withdrawn when the government has 
indicated its benevolent intentions towards, though not its immediate accept- 
ance of, the proposals suggests that the power has been used in moderation. 
There is a marked difference, however, between provinces as to the number 
of resolutions moved; and in some councils the chief activity is confined to a 
small group of members. It is clear that the provincial governments do 
attach weight to resolutions and exert themselves if possible to defeat those 
which they are not prepared to accept. Not many resolutions have been 
carried against the government, and when a resolution is carried, the govern- 
ment if it decides that it cannot give effect to the wishes of the council usually 
publishes its reasons for so deciding. But the effect of the resolution is by 
no means confined to those which are carried against or accepted by the 

1 " Constitutional Reforms, " Parliamentary Papers, East India, 1918, pp. 79-80. 

2 Ibid., p. 83. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 209 

government, for it often happens that discussion of a subject leads to positive 
results. 1 

The next two of the features, the concession of the non-official 
majority in the provincial councils, and the retention of an official 
majority or bloc in the Imperial Legislative Council were really but two 
parts of the same reform. In the first place, in considering them it 
must be borne in mind that the legislative councils, though greatly 
enlarged in both numbers and powers, were not in any way intended 
to be embryo parliaments. 

In the words of Viscount Morley himself: 

If I were attempting to set up a parliamentary system in India, or if it 
could be said that this chapter of reforms led directly or necessarily up to the 
establishment of a parliamentary system in India, I, for one, would have 
nothing at all to do with it. I do not believe — it is not of very great conse- 
quence what I believe, because the fulfilment of my vaticination would not 
come off very soon — in spite of the attempts in oriental countries at this 
moment, interesting attempts to which we all wish well, to set up some sort 
of a parliamentary system — it is no ambition of mine, at all events, to have 
any share in beginning that operation in India. If my existence, either 
officially or corporeally, were prolonged twenty times longer than either of 
them is likely to be, a parliamentary system in India is not the goal to which 
I for one moment would aspire. 2 

In brief the Indian Councils Act provided for the establishment in 
each of the major provinces of enlarged legislative councils in which there 
should be a non-official majority, variously chosen by such electorates 
as were available, and where the difficulties of creating them were too 
great, appointed by the government. 3 To check any undue precocity 

1 The discussion of general matters was permitted on subjects not in the list 
proscribed by the act of 1861, or affecting the relations with foreign countries or native 
states or cases pending in the courts. Any resolution could be introduced but all of 
them were required to be clearly phrased specific recommendations without arguments, 
inferences, ironical expressions, or defamatory statements, and must not refer to any 
individual except in his official capacity. — "Executive and Legislative Councils," 
Parliamentary Papers, East India, Vol. X (1909), No. 24, p. 7. 

2 Parliamentary Debates, 4th. Ser., Vol. CXCVIII (Dec. 7-21, 1908), col. 1985. 

3 The composition of the different councils under the regulations of 1909 were as 
follows. The figures in the parentheses are those prescribed in 1912. 

Bengal 

A. 22 (20) nominated members, not more than 17 of whom were to be officials selected by the lieutenant 

governor 

1 non-official chosen by the Indian commercial community 
1 non-official chosen by the planting community 

B. 2 experts nominated in case of need for specific measures 

(Footnote continued on page 210) 



2IO THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

on the part of the provincial bodies, the lieutenant governor of the 
province and the governor-general were both equipped with a veto and 
in case of need the latter had the official majority which was retained 



(Footnote continued from page 209) 
C. 26 elected members: 

1 by the Corporation of Calcutta 

1 by the University of Calcutta 

6 (s) by the municipal commissioners 
6 (s) by the district and local boards 
5 (4) by the landholders 
4 (5) by the Mohammedan community 

2 by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce 
1 by the Calcutta Trades Association 

1 (o) by the municipal commissioners of Chittagong 
1 (o) by the Chittagong port commissioners 
1 (o) by the tea planting community 
Bombay 

A. 21 nominated by the governor of whom not more than 14 were to be officials 

B. 2 experts nominated in case of need for specific measures 

C. 21 elected as follows: 

1 by the Corporation of Bombay 

1 by the University of Bombay 

1 by the sardars of the Deccan 

1 by the sardars of Gujaret 

1 by the Jagidars and zamindars of Sind 

4 by the municipalities 

4 by the district and local boards 

4 by the Mohammedan community 

1 by the Indian commercial community 

1 by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce 

1 by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce 

1 by the Millowners Association of Bombay 
Bombay and Ahmedabad, alternately — 
Burma 

A. 14 members nominated by the governor, not more than 6 of whom were to be officials 

4 from the Burmese population 
1 from the Indian population 

1 from the Chinese population 

B. 2 experts nominated in case of need for specific measures 

C. 1 member elected by the Burma Chamber of Commerce 
Eastern Bengal and Assam (Assam) 

A. 22 (13) members nominated by the lieutenant governor (chief commissioner) not more than 17 (9) of 

whom were to be officials, 1 non-official from the Indian commercial community 

B. 2 experts to be nominated in case of need for specific measures 

C. 18 (n Assam) to be elected: 

1 (o) by the commissioners of the port of Chittagong 

3 (2) by the municipal commissioners " 

5 (2) by the district and local boards 

2 (o) by the landholders 

4 (2) by the Mohammedan community 
2 (3) by the tea interests 

1 (o) by the jute interests 
Madras 

A. 25 nominated by the governor, of whom not more than 16 were to be officials, 1 was to be a non-official 

from the Indian community 

B. 2 experts to be nominated in case of need for' specific measures 

(Footnote continued on page 211) 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 2 II 

in the paramount Imperial Legislative Council to carry any necessary 
measure over the heads of a recalcitrant provincial body. 1 

The concession of the non-official majority, even in the provincial 
legislative councils, was a reversal of the proposals of the government 
of India contained in its reform circular of August 24, 1907, which said: 

The principle of a standing majority is accepted by the government as 
an entirely legitimate and necessary consequence of the nature of the para- 
mount power in India, and so far as they know it has never been disputed by 
any section of Indian opinion that does not dispute the legitimacy of the 
paramount power itself. That is not an open question, and if two men are 
not able to wield a scepter it is idle to dissemble that fact in constructing 
political machinery. 2 

(Footnote continued from page 210) 
C. 19 elected as follows: 

1 by the Corporation of Madras 

1 by the University of Madras 

8 (9) by the municipal councils, district and taluk boards 

2 by the zamindars 

2 (3) by the landholders and other than zamindars 

2 by the Mohammedan community 

1 by the Madras Chamber of Commerce 
1 by the Madras Trades Association 
1 by the planting community 
Punjab 

A. 19 nominated by the lieutenant governor, of whom not more than 10 were to be officials 

B. 2 experts nominated in case of need for specific measures 
C s (8) elected as follows: 

1 by the University of the Punjab 

3 by the Municipal and Cantonment Committees 
1 by the Punjab Chamber of Commerce 

(3) by the district boards 
Agra and Oudha 

A. 26 nominated by the lieutenant governor, of whom not more than 20 were to be officials 

B. 2 experts to be nominated in case of need for specific measures 
C 20 elected as follows: 

1 by the University of Allahabad 

4 by the municipal boards 
8 (g) by the district boards 

2 by the landholders 

4 by the Mohammedan community 

1 by the Upper India Chamber of Commerce 

Bihar and Orissa 

A. 19 nominated by the lieutenant governor, of whom not more than 15 were to be officials 

B. 1 expert to be nominated in case of need for a specific measure 
C 21 elected as follows: 

5 by the municipal commissioners 
5 by the district boards 

5 by the landholders 
4 by the Mohammedans 
1 by the mining community 
1 by the planting community 

1 Parliamentary Debates, Commons, Vol. Ill (1909), col. 557. 

2 P. Mukherji, op. tit., p. 219. 



212 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

An official majority in the provincial councils to be created by 
appointment in case of need was also contemplated by the government 
of India dispatch of October i, 1908. In reference to this proposal 
Viscount Morley in his reply said: 

I see formidable drawbacks that have certainly not escaped Your Excel- 
lency to the expedient which you propose, and I cannot regard with favor the 
power of calling into play an official majority while seeming to dispense 
with it. I am unable to persuade myself that to import a number of gentlemen 
to vote down something upon which they may or may not have heard the 
arguments will prove satisfactory. To secure the required relations I am 
convinced that a permanent official majority in the Imperial Legislative 
Council is absolutely necessary, and this must outweigh the grave disadvantages 
that induce us to dispense with it in the provincial legislatures. It need not 
be in any sense an overwhelming majority and this Your Excellency does not 
seek; but it must be substantial, as it is certainly desirable that the governor- 
general should be removed from the conflict of the division test, and that the 
fate of any measure or resolution should not rest on his vote alone. 1 

Viscount Morley thus expressed his reasons for conceding the 
non-official majority in the provincial councils. 

The first question therefore is the necessity of maintaining in these councils 

the majority of officials We have before us, to begin, the leading 

fact that in the important province of Bombay there is in the Council as at 
present composed no official majority, and that the Bombay government even 
in the smaller of its alternative schemes presented to Your Excellency in 
Council is willing to dispense with such a majority. Considering the char- 
acter of the legislation ordinarily coming before a provincial council, is it not 
possible with due representation given to the various classes and interests in 
the community to do without a majority of officials ? After careful considera- 
tion I have come to the conclusion that in provincial councils such a majority 
may be dispensed with provided that a substantial official majority is perma- 
nently maintained in the Imperial Legislative Council. 

I do not conceal from myself the risks in such an arrangement. The 
non-official majority may press legislation of a character disapproved by the 
executive governments. This should be met by the exercise of the power to 
withhold assent possessed by the head of the government. Then although 
the local legislature is vested with power to make laws for the peace and good 
government of the territories constituting the provinces, still the range of 
subjects is considerably narrowed by the statutory exclusions now in force. 
Thus, for example, the local legislature may not without the previous sanction 
of the governor-general make or take into consideration any law affecting the 
public debt of India, or the customs duties or any other tax or duty for the 

1 P. Mukherji, op. cit., p. 277. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 213 

time being in force and imposed by the authority of the governor-general in 
council for the general purposes of the government of India; or regulating 
currency or postal or telegraph business; or altering in any way the Indian 
penal code; or affecting religion or religious rites or usages; or affecting the 
discipline or maintenance of naval or military forces; or dealing with patents, 
copyrights, or the relations of the government with foreign princes or states. 
It is difficult to see how any measure of such urgency that delay might 
work serious mischief can come before a provincial council; for mere opposition 
to a useful and beneficial project would not come within this description. 
On the other hand and perhaps more often, there may be opposition on the 
part of non-official members to legislation that the government desires. With 
a counsel, however, representing divergent interests and realizing together 
with its increased powers, its greater responsibility, a combination of all the 
non-official members to resist a measure proposed by the government would 
be unlikely and some non-officials at least would probably cast their votes on 
the side of the government. If, however, a combination of all the non-official 
members against the government were to occur, that might be a very good 
reason for thinking that the proposed measure was really open to objection 

and should not be proceeded with If in spite of such hostile vote the 

comparatively rare case should arise, where immediate legislation were still 
thought absolutely necessary, then the constitution as it at present stands, 
provides an adequate remedy. The governor-general today exercises a con- 
current power to legislate for any provinces, and though I strongly favor a 
policy that would leave to each local legislature the duty of providing for its 
own requirements, still I recognize in this power an ample safeguard, should 
under exceptional circumstances a real demand for its exercise arise. This 
decision will make it necessary to modify to some extent the constitution of the 
several provincial councils proposed by you and will enable you to secure a 
wider representation. 1 

The working of these provisions for the legislative councils was thus 
officially described in the report of the Parliamentary Committee of 
1918: 

It has been the exception and not the rule for government to leave its 
official members to speak and vote as they chose even on private members' 
business. On government business their mandate has been stricter. The 
proceedings in council have been controlled by government; generally speaking 
government officials are not expected to ask questions or move resolutions, 
or in some councils to intervene in debate or even to rise to points of order 
without government's approval, and though there is of late a tendency to 
treat more matters as open questions, when a division is taken the official 
members nearly always vote by order in support of government. .... 

1 Ibid., pp. 275-76. 



214 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

Upon the Indian members of the legislative councils the effect is frankly 
irritating. It prejudices in their view the position of the official members who 
form the bloc. Indian members may share in a debate in which the majority 
of speakers and in their eyes the weight of the argument are arrayed against 
the government. The government, having only one view to present, often 
contents itself with doing so through a single mouthpiece. But when a 
decision is taken the silent official phalanx effectively carries the government 
measure or votes down the private members' resolution. The Indian members' 
views are therefore rarely placed on record as the opinion of the Council 
because the Council's decision is in the majority of cases the decision of the 
government. We may add that most governments dislike the use of the 
official bloc, and that most of the men who compose it dislike the position 
in which they find themselves. The fact that Indian officials in the councils 
are rare and that the few English non-official members as a rule vote with the 
government helps, not merely to exacerbate the cleavage but to give it an 
unamiable character. It tends to stimulate the discussion of racial questions, 
and to give an edge to the debate. But above all, the official solidarity natu- 
rally stifles any differences that exist between Indian elected members and 
drives them to a league against government into which the nominated Indian 
members also tend to enter. 

88. These factors contribute to the unreality of the proceedings. Because 
the number of elected members is small and the issue is often known before- 
hand, the debates lack life unless feelings are aroused or interests are directly 
affected; and because the government has to a great extent controlled the 
proceedings, the councils have not felt the need of developing any corporate 
opinions which would have the effect of raising the standard of individual 
performance. Nevertheless the quality of the speeches on both sides is 
improving; and there is less reading than formerly of manuscripts prepared 
without reference to the debate; less repetition of points already dealt with 
and disposed of. Experience of the occasions when government has with- 
drawn from the discussion and left natural cleavages of opinion to declare 
themselves, shows how much greater vitality may be infused into the council 
work in the future, if the official bloc be withdrawn. 1 

Comparing the provincial and the imperial councils it went on 
to say: 

Certain differences between the Indian and the provincial councils are 
already apparent. Both the elected and official members in the provincial 
councils are in closer touch with the subject-matter of discussion; many of 
the elected members have activities which bring them in contact with the 
official members outside of the Council, and thereby closer relations are 
established; and because distances are smaller the meetings of the councils 
are more evenly distributed throughout the year, and of shorter duration 

1 "Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, East India, 1918, pp. 73-74. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 215 

than in the Indian Legislative Council, with the result that the pressure upon 
the few official members on whom the chief business falls is probably felt less 
heavily than in the government of India. 

The main point of difference, however, is of course the fact that in all the 
provincial councils there is a non-official majority and in Bengal a small 
elected majority. But the fact that the absentees are more numerous among 
the non-official than among the official members tends to impair the effectiveness 
of the non-official majority. It cannot be said, however, that the introduction 
of government bills has been generally hindered by the prospect of opposition, 
although there have, we understand, been occasions when a local government 
has been deterred from attempting legislation which it desired. As in the 
government of India the policy has generally been to anticipate opposition 
to particular provisions by modifying a draft bill in the light of objections 
raised in the opinions received I 

Nowhere has there been much private members legislation. In the 
Bombay Council only one bill out of six has passed, but we understand that 
most of the others were reasonable attempts to deal with important problems. 
In the United Provinces non-official members carried bills against adulteration 
and opium gambling. A private bill to stop juvenile smoking is before a select 
committee in the Punjab and a private bill dealing with compulsory education in 
Bihar and Orissa. These same two topics are at present the subject of two 

private bills in Bengal 2 Only five private bills have been passed by 

the Imperial Legislative Council since 1910. 

Viewed as representative bodies, the reconstituted legislative councils 
proved far from satisfactory. The parliamentary report says of this 
aspect: 

83. No one can deny that as an embodiment of the representative prin- 
ciple the present electoral system has great defects. The chief of these are 
the very restricted nature of the present franchise, and, except in the con- 
stituencies composed of the members of some special class or community, the 
lack of any real connection between the primary voter and the member who 
sits in the councils. In the Indian Legislative Council there are eighteen 
members who are elected to speak for sectional interests, and nine who may 
be said to represent, however remotely, the views of the people as a whole. 
So far as can be stated the largest constituency which returns a member 
directly to the Indian Legislative Council does not exceed 650 persons; and 
most of the constituencies are decidedly smaller. 

The constituencies which return the nine representatives of the people at 
large are composed of the non-official members of the various provincial 
legislative councils, and the average number of voters in these electoral bodies 
is only twenty-two, while in one case the actual number is nine. In the case 

1 Ibid., pp. 81-82. 2 Ibid., p. 79. 



216 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

of the provincial councils themselves, there is the same division of members 
between those who are directly elected to represent special interests and those 
who are elected indirectly as the representatives of the general population. 
For the latter the members of municipal and local boards either act as electors 
or else choose electoral delegates to make the election; but in neither case do 
the constituencies exceed a few hundred persons. If we ignore the small class 
constituencies, then, local bodies which in a limited sense may be taken as 
standing for the people at large, enjoy the best representation and return 7.4 
members for every 1,000 electors. Then come the landholders with 3.6 repre- 
sentatives for every 1,000 electors, and then the Mohammedans with 1.3 mem- 
bers per 1,000 electors. 

A minor but still noteworthy result of the present electoral system is the 
large percentage of members of the legal profession who succeed at elections. 
If we look at the constitution of the Indian Legislative Council after the elec- 
tions of 1909, 1 91 2, and 1916, we see that the percentage of lawyers among 
the non-official elected members was 37, 26, and 33 respectively. 1 

The concession of special electorates to the Mohammedans may be 
said to have assumed its first tangible proportions in October, 1906, 
when a delegation of Mohammedans from the newly organized All-India 
Moslem League waited upon Lord Minto at Simla, and presented to him 
an address which is probably the best single statement made of the 
Mohammedan case. 

It began by reciting that it was presented by nobles, jaghirdars, 
Taluqdars, lawyers, zamindars, merchants, and others who represented a 
large body of the Mohammedan subjects of His Majesty, the King 
Emperor. It continued: 

We fully realize and appreciate the benefits conferred by British rule on 
the teeming millions belonging to the divers races, and professing divers 
religions, who form the population of the vast continent of India, and have 
every reason to be grateful for the peace, security, personal freedom, and liberty 
of worship that we now enjoy. 

Further, from the wise and enlightened character of the government we 
have every reasonable ground for anticipating that these benefits will be 
progressive and that India will in the future occupy an increasingly important 
position in the community of nations. 2 

They then pointed out that the Mohammedans numbered sixty-two 
millions or between one-fifth and one-fourth of the population of British 

1 "Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, East India, 1918, pp. 70-71, 
sees. 83-84. 

2 Edward E. Lang, op. cit., p. 349; also Bombay Gazette, October 6, 1906, p. 15. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 217 

India, and were more numerous than any European power except 
Russia. 1 They said: 

The position accorded to the Mohammedan community in any kind of 
representation direct or indirect, and in all other ways affecting their status 
and influence should be commensurate not merely with their political strength 
but also with their political importance and the value of the contributions which 
they make to the defence of the empire. The Mohammedans of India have 
always placed implicit reliance on the sense of justice and love of fair dealing 
that have characterized their rulers, and have in consequence abstained from 
pressing their claims by methods that prove at all embarrassing, but earnestly 
as we desire that the Mohammedans of India should not in the future depart 
from the excellent and time honored tradition, recent events have stirred 
up feelings, especially among the younger generation of Mohammedans, which 
might in certain circumstances and under certain contingencies easily pass 
beyond the control of temperate counsel and sober guidance. 

While we are bound to acknowledge that such representation as the 
Mohammedans of India have hitherto enjoyed has been due to a sense of 
justice and fairness on the part of Your Excellency and your illustrious 
predecessors in office and the heads of local governments, by whom the Moham- 
medan members of the legislative chambers have almost without exception 
been nominated, we cannot help observing that the representation has neces- 
sarily been inadequate to our requirements, and has not always been carried 
with approval of those whom the nominees were selected to represent. This 
state of things was probably under the existing circumstances unavoidable, 
for, while on one hand the number of nominations reserved to the viceroy and 
local governments has necessarily been strictly limited, the selection on the 

1 This statement was not quite accurate. The relative proportion, not only of 
the Mohammedans, but the other religions, is shown by the following table, which 
also indicates the industrial, commercial, and educational situation in British India, 
not including the native states. — "Advisory and Legislative Councils, " Parliamentary 
Papers, East India, I (1908), 9. 

Communities ■ Number of ^TotaP ° f 

Hindus 158,601,000 68.00 

Mohammedans 53,804,000 23 .00 

Buddhists 9,411,000 4.00 

Christians 1,904,000 0.81 

Sikhs 1,574,000 0.67 

Jains 479,000 0.20 

Interests 

Agriculture 155,678,000 67.1 

Commerce and industry 38,302,000 16.5 

Professions 3,871,000 1.6 

Literacy of Adult Males 

Literate in English . . .' 625 , 000 1 . o 

Literate in a vernacular 8,616, 000 14 . o 



218 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

other hand of representative men has, in the absence of any reliable method 
of ascertaining the direction of popular choice, been far from easy. 1 

They expressed themselves aggrieved that Mohammedan judges had 
not been more frequently appointed to the high courts, and the Chief 
Court of Judicature. They pointed out that only three Mohammedans 
had been raised to these offices since the creation of the courts, and that 
at that time there were none. Moreover, the same discrimination had 
existed in the case of the senates and the syndicates of the Indian 
universities. 

In regard to Mohammedan representation in the legislative chambers 
they suggested that in the provincial councils 

as in the case of municipalities and district boards the proportion of Moham- 
medan representatives entitled to a seat should be determined and declared 
with due regard to the important consideration which we have ventured to 
point out in paragraph 5 of this address and that important landowners, 
lawyers, merchants and representatives of other important interests, the 
Mohammedan members of district boards and municipalities, the Moham- 
medan graduates of universities of a certain standing, say five years, should be 
formed into electoral colleges and be authorized in accordance with such rules 
as Your Excellency's government may be pleased to prescribe in that behalf, 
to return the number of members that may be declared to be eligible. 

With regard to the Imperial Legislative Council whereon the representa- 
tion of Mohammedan interests is a matter of vital importance, we crave leave 
to suggest (1) that in the cadre of the Council the proportion of Mohammedan 
representatives should be determined on the basis of the numerical strength of 
the community, and that in any case the Mohammedan representatives should 
never be an ineffectual minority; (2) that as far as possible the appointment 
by election should be given preference over nomination, that for the purpose 
of choosing Mohammedan members, Mohammedan landowners, lawyers, 
merchants, and representatives of other important interests of a status to be 
subsequently determined by Your Excellency's government, Mohammedan 
members of the provincial councils, and Mohammedan Fellows of universities 
should be invested with such procedure as may be prescribed by Your Excel- 
lency's government in that behalf. 

In the course of his reply to the deputation, after assuring them that 
the points they had raised were before the committee appointed to 
consider the question of representation, Lord Minto said: 

In respect to the political importance of your community and the service 

it has rendered the empire, I am entirely in accord with you I make no 

attempt to indicate by what means the representation of communities can be 

1 Bombay Gazette, October 6, 1906, p. 15, cols. 1-3. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 219 

obtained, but I am firmly convinced as I believe you to be, that any electoral 
representation in India would be doomed to mischievous failure which aimed 
at granting a personal enfranchisement regardless of the beliefs and traditions 
of the communities composing the populations of the continent. The great 
mass of the people of India have no knowledge of representative institutions. 1 

He concluded by promising that the rights of the Mohammedans would 
be respected. 

After the Indian Councils Act of 1909 was well under way, another 
deputation of Mohammedans waited upon Lord Morley in London, on 
January 27, 1909. 2 They presented their case to him. Viscount 
Morley's reply was similar in tone to that of Lord Minto's, three years 
before. 

Speaking in Parliament regarding this deputation he said : 

The Mohammedans demand three things. I had the pleasure of receiving 
a deputation from them and I know very well what is in their minds. They 
demand the election of their own representatives to these councils in all the 
stages, just as in Cyprus, where I think the Mohammedans vote by themselves. 
They have nine votes and the non-Mohammedans have three or the other 
way around. So in Bohemia where the Germans vote alone, and have their 
own register. Therefore we are not without a precedent and a parallel for 
the idea of a separate register. 

Secondly, they want a number of seats in excess of their numerical strength. 
Those two demands we are quite ready and intend to meet in full. There is 
a third demand, that, if there is a Hindu on the viceroy's Executive Council, 
.... there should be two Indian members on the viceroy's Council and that 
one should be a Mohammedan. Well, as I told them and as I tell Your Lord- 
ships, I see no chance whatever of meeting their views in that way to any 
extent at all. 3 

In addition to the arguments advanced by the Mohammedans, 
there may have been another motive which influenced the British 
government to grant the Mohammedans special representation. The 
Moslem community had for over a generation refrained as a body from 
political activity of any sort and now that the All-India Moslem League 
had finally been formed, the contrast in the tone assumed by its leaders 
and their expression of loyalty to the English government, as compared 
with the attitude of the Hindus, was remarkable. 

It may well be that there was some feeling of gratitude and apprecia- 
tion of their support in the readiness with which the special representation 

1 Bombay Gazette, October 6, 1906, p. 16, col. 1. 

2 Bengalee, February 18, 1909, p. 7, col. 3. 

* Parliamentary Debates, Lords, Vol. I (Feb. 26, 1909), cols. 121-22. 



220 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

was conceded. Perhaps too it was to encourage them in their loyalty, 
and keep them from making common cause with the Hindus by casting 
a bone of contention between them, thus bringing them closer to the 
British raj. 

This, however, is surmise. It was, nevertheless, suspected by the 
Hindus and doubtless was what the editor of the Bengalee had in mind 
when he wrote to the effect that "the government have been not 
altogether disinclined to favour the Mohammedan cause either for 
political reasons, or from ignorance of the futility of the arguments urged 
by the Mohammedans for special favours." 1 

In opposition to the concession, the chief arguments were that if the 
Mohammedans were given special representation, fairness would require 
that other minorities like the native Christians and Sikhs be given 
special representation likewise, and that religion was not a sound basis 
for a government which professed religious neutrality to base an 
electorate on. 2 

The case was thus summarized by the government of India in its 
dispatch of October i, 1908. 

All local governments approve of the proposals for the special representa- 
tion of Mohammedans which were made in our letter of August 24, 1907. 
These proposals are, as a rule, adversely criticised by the Hindus, who regard 
them as an attempt to set one religion against the other, and thus to create a 
counterpoise to the influence of the educated middle class. Some Hindus, 
however, recognize the expediency of giving special representation to the 
Mohammedan community, and the Bombay Presidency Association, while 
they object strongly to the creation of a special Mohammedan electorate, make 
provision in their scheme of a council for the election of two members by the 
Mohammedan community. Notwithstanding their formal protest against the 
principle of religious representation the Association doubtless realizes that the 
Indian Mohammedans are much more than a religious body. They form in 
fact an absolutely separate community, distinct by marriage, food, custom, 
and claiming in many cases to belong to a different race from the Hindus. 3 

It then went on to give the following explanation for the allotment 
of seats as finally made: 

The first question is how many seats should be aUotted to the Mohammedan 
community. After carefully considering the demands of the Mohammedans 
themselves and views expressed by the Hindus we think that the claims of the 

1 Hindu, July 8, 1909, p. 19, col. 1. 

2 Bombay Gazette, September 26, 1908, p. 23, col. 1. 

3 P. Mukherji, op. cit., "Reform Dispatch," 1908, pp. 250 et seq.; also "Advisory 
and Legislative Councils," Parliamentary Papers, East India, 1908. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 221 

former will be adequately met if four elective seats are assigned to them, and 
provision is made for a fifth seat being filled by nomination until suitable 
machinery for election can be devised. The four elective seats shall be per- 
manently assigned to the four provinces which have the largest Mohammedan 
population, namely, Bengal, Eastern Bengal and Assam, the Punjab, and the 
United Provinces. The fifth seat should be given alternately to Bombay and 
Madras, where the Mohammedan population is smaller, and for this it will be 
necessary to have recourse to nomination until satisfactory electorates can be 
formed. The question of a Mohammedan electorate presents much the same 
difficulties as the formation of a landholding electorate. In most provinces 
the Mohammedans are in favor of election and regard nomination as an 
inferior method of obtaining admission to the Legislative Council. The govern- 
ments of Madras and the United Provinces propose electorates based partly upon 
property and partly upon literary qualifications, which appear to us to be 
well devised, but the former government has since expressed a preference 
for nomination. The Mohammedans of Bombay are said to be widely scat- 
tered over the presidency, and at present unorganized for common purposes, 
so that a special electorate cannot be created. In course of time it may be 
possible to arrange for election by a central association but for the present 
their proportionate representation can be secured only by careful nomination. 
The government of Bengal proposes a scheme of a similar character which 
includes graduates of five years' standing and holders of recognized titles. 
Both of these are doubtful features. The government of Eastern Bengal 
and Assam suggests that the Mohammedan representation should be elected 
by the Provincial Mohammedan Association. The lieutenant governor of 
the Punjab considers it impossible to form a Mohammedan electorate, 1 and 
proposes that the Mohammedan representative should be nominated by the 
lieutenant governor. We would deal with the question in the same way as we 
have proposed to deal with the representation of landholders. Our view is 
that in provinces where election by a regular Mohammedan electorate is feasible 
that method should be adopted; that Mohammedan associations should be 

1 The following are, in summary form, the regulations relating to the composition 
of the Mohammedan electorate: 

Madras. — The Mohammedan electorate was to consist of all resident Mohamme- 
dans who were landholders with incomes therefrom of 3,000 rupees, who had incomes 
of 6,000 rupees, who were members of the Legislative Council, who were Fellows of 
the university, titleholders or pensioners of the government. 

Bombay. — The Mohammedan electorate consisted of the Mohammedan non- 
official additional members of the Legislative Council. 

Bengal. — The Mohammedan electorate consisted of the Mohammedan members 
of the Legislative Council, title-holders, Fellows of the university, pensioners of the 
government, holders of land taxed for 750 rupees, or paying 187 rupees, 8 annas road 
tax, or persons paying an income tax on 6,000 rupees. 

United Provinces. — The Mohammedan electorate consisted of owners of land 
paying 10,000 rupees in taxes, persons paying an income tax on 10,000 rupees, members 



222 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

made use of where electorates cannot be formed; that nomination by govern- 
ment should be resorted to where neither of the first two methods is practicable. 
It will be for the local government to determine in consultation with the leaders 
of the Mohammedan community which plan should be adopted. 

The scheme of an advisory council was contained in Lord Minto's 
original minute, and persisted in by the government of India until, at 
the instance of Viscount Morley, it was dropped. His reasons cover the 
situation. He wrote: 

The original proposal of an Imperial Advisory Council was based on the 
interesting and attractive idea of associating ruling chiefs and territorial 
magnates of British India in guardianship of common and imperial interests, 
and as a means of promoting more intimate relations among component parts 
of the Indian Empire. The general opinion of those whose assent and co- 
operation would be indispensable had proved adverse, and Your Excellency in 
Council now considers that the project should for the present not be proceeded 
with. You still favor an Imperial Council composed only of ruling chiefs. 
Lord Lytton made an experiment in this direction but it remained without 
successful result. Lord Curzon afterwards proposed to create a council com- 
posed of princes contributing Imperial Service Troops, and deliberating on 
that subject exclusively. Opinion pronounced this also to be unfruitful and 
ineffectual in practice. Your Excellency's project is narrower than the first 
of these two expedients, and wider than the second. I confess that, while 
entirely appreciating and sympathizing with your object, I judge the practical 
difficulties in the way of such a council assembling under satisfactory condi- 
tions to be considerable — expense precedence, housing, for instance, even if 
there be no others. Yet if not definitely constituted with a view to assembly, 
it could possess little or no reality. It would obviously be a mistake to push 
the project, unless it commands the clear assent and approval of those whose 
presence in the council would be essential to its success, and the opinions 
expressed in the replies with which you have furnished me lead me to doubt 
whether that condition can be secured. But in case Your Excellency still 



of the Legislative Council, Fellows of the university, trustees of the Anglo-Oriental 
College, title-holders, pensioners. 

Eastern Bengal and Assam. — The Mohammedan electorate was composed of 
title-holders, proprietors of lands paying 750 rupees in revenue or 180 rupees in land 
cess, payers of income taxes on 6,000 rupees, and pensioners. 

Punjab. — There were no provisions for special electorates for Mohammedans in 
the Punjab, for the Provincial Legislative Council. The Mohammedans were not 
sufficiently organized to furnish a basis for an electorate and were sufficiently numerous 
there to better look out for themselves. On the Imperial Legislative Council their 
interests were sure of representation by the reservation for them of one of the 
appointed. ' ' Executive and Legislative Councils Regulations, " Parliamentary Papers, 
East India, 1909, p. 75. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 223 

favors this proposal, which is in itself attractive, I do not wish to express 
dissent at this stage, and if after consultation with the leading chiefs, you are 
able to devise a scheme that is at once acceptable to them and workable in 
practice, I am not inclined to place any obstacle in the way of a full and fair 
trial. And in any event the doubt I have expressed must not be taken as 
discouraging consultation with individual chiefs, according to existing practice, 
for nobody with any part to play in Indian government can doubt the manifold 
advantages of still further developing not only amicable but confidential 
relations of this kind with the loyal rulers in Indian states, possessed as they 
are of such peculiar authority and experience. 1 

The provision authorizing the establishment of executive councils 
in the provinces was an addenda of Viscount Morley. He wrote 
concerning it: 

39. The suggestion for the establishment of executive councils for lieu- 
tenant governors, as Your Excellency is aware, is not new [It] was 

much discussed in obedience to the orders of the secretary of state in 1868, 
by men of the highest authority on Indian questions, and I do not conceive 
that after all the consideration given to the subjects then and since, further 
consultations could be expected to bring any new argument of weight and 
substance into view. 

40. It has sometimes been argued that the creation of executive councils 
in the major provinces would necessarily carry with it, as in Bombay and 
Madras, the appointment in each case of a governor from home. This would 
indeed be a large departure from the present system of administration, almost 
amounting to the confusion and overthrow of that system, reposing as it does 
upon the presence, at the head of the highest administrative posts, of officers 
trained and experienced in the complex requirements and diversified duties 
of the Indian government. I take for granted, therefore, that the head of 
the province will be, as now, a member of the Indian Civil Service appointed 
in such mode as the law prescribes. 

I propose, therefore, to ask for power to create executive councils from 
time to time as may be found expedient. In this connection we cannot ignore 
the necessity of securing that a constitutional change, designed both to 
strengthen the authority and to lighten the labors of the head of the province, 
shall not impair the prompt exercise of executive power. It will, therefore, 
be necessary to consider most carefully what degree of authority over the 
members of his council in case of dissent should be vested in the head of a 
province in which an executive council may be called into being. 

It was recognized by Parliament more than a century ago that the gov- 
ernors of Madras and Bombay should be vested with a discretionary power 
of overruling these councils "in cases of high importance and essentially affect- 

1 P. Mukherji, Indian Constitutional Documents, IJ73-1915, p. 268. 



224 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

ing the public interest and welfare." A power no less than this will obviously 
be required in the provinces in which a council may come to be associated with 
the head of the executive, and I shall be glad if you will favor me with your 
views upon its definition. Your Excellency will readily understand that the 
use of such a power, while not to be evaded in the special cases for which it is 
designed, is not intended for part of the ordinary mechanism of government. 
Rather, in the language of the historical dispatch of 1834, it is my belief that in 
a punctual, constant, and even fastidious adherence to your ordinary rules of 
practice, you will find the best security, not only for the efficiency, and also 
for the dispatch of your legislative proceedings. 1 

In India among the educated classes if the Morley-Minto reforms 
were not received with wild enthusiasm, they were certainly on the whole 
accepted as being all that could be expected at the time. A deputation 
waited upon Lord Minto, 2 a few days after the arrival of Viscount 
Morley's dispatch of November 27, 1908. It was composed of both 
Hindus and the Mohammedans, and came to express their gratitude for 
the reforms. 

A few days later the Congress in session at Madras also expressed 
through its president, Mr. Gokhale, their thanks to the home government 
and the government of India. Almost at the same time the Moslem 
League met at Amritsar, and were warm in their approval of the new 
measures, though they found fault with the amount of representation 
conceded and other items. By no means all, even of the so-called 
moderates, were of such a mind, but most seem to have felt much the 
way the editor of the Bengalee did, when he wrote: 

We have come to the deliberate conclusion which we invite our countrymen 
to accept, that it [the reforms] represents an honest effort to introduce the 
beginnings of parliamentary procedure in matters of local administration. 
We have not indeed got all we wanted. We asked for more and we shall 
continue to press for more. But we are thankful for what we have got and 
we are strengthened in the hope that we shall get more if we follow persist- 
ently and without flinching those constitutional methods in which we have 
explicit confidence. 3 

English opinion was on the whole also dubious. Sir B. Fuller wrote 
in 1910: 

As regards the recent Indian Council reforms, there is no friend of India 
but sympathizes with endeavors to educate the people in the art of government 

1 Bengalee, December 18, 1908, p. 8, col. 1; also P. Mukherji, op. cit., pp. 283 
et seq. 

2 Parliamentary Debates, Lords, Vol. I (1909), cols. 1 13-14. 

3 Bengalee, December 19, 1908, p. 5, col. 1. 



THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 225 

and to utilize to the full such faculties for governing as they possess The 

Liberal party would indeed have been false to its traditions had it not taken 
advantage of the opportunities for relaxing the tension of India's leading 
strings. The reforms may have been carried too far, and it may be found that 
they excite rather than allay feelings of hostility toward us. But they repre- 
sent an honest and courageous attempt to raise the status and increase the 
influence and self-respect of the Indian educated classes. 1 

The Morley-Minto reforms were the last measures of importance 
affecting self-government in India before the outbreak of the war in 1914. 
The best estimate of their effectiveness is contained in the report of the 
Parliamentary Committee of 1918. It says: 

The new institutions began with good auspices, and on both sides there was 
a desire to work them in a conciliatory fashion. But some of the antecedent 
conditions of success were lacking. There was no general advance in local 
bodies; no real setting free of provincial finance; and in spite of some progress 
no widespread admissions of Indians in greater numbers into the public service. 
Because the relaxation of parliamentary control had not been contemplated, 
the government of India could not relax its control over local governments. 
The sphere in which the councils could affect the government's action, both in 
respect of finance and administration, was therefore closely circumscribed. 
Again and again a local government could only meet a resolution by saying 
that the matter was really out of its hands. It could not find the money 
because of the provincial settlements; it was not administratively free to 
act because the government of India was seized of the matter; it could there- 
fore only lay the views of the Council before the government of India. As 
regards legislation also the continuance of the idea of official subordination 
led to much of the real work being done behind the scenes. The councils 
were really more effective than they knew, but their triumphs were not won 
in broad daylight in the dramatic manner which political ardor desired. This 
was one reason why more interest was often shown in resolutions than in 
legislation. The carrying of a resolution against the government, apart 
from the opportunity of recording an opinion which might some day bear 
fruit, came to be regarded as a great moral victory, and it is evident that 
topics that were likely to combine all the Indian elements in the Council 
offered the best opportunity. Because the centralization of control limited 
the effectiveness of the councils the non-official members were driven to think 
more of display than they might otherwise have done; and the sense of un- 
reality on both sides deepened. All this time the national consciousness and 
the desire for political power were growing rapidly in the minds of educated 
Indians; and the councils with their limited opportunities proved to be an 

1 Sir B. Fuller, " Indian Responsibilities of Liberal Politicians, " Nineteenth Century 
Review, LXVII (1910), 7. 



226 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

insufficient safety-valve. While, therefore, inside the councils there are 
signs of hardening opposition and the weariness which comes of sterile efforts, 
outside the councils the tide of feeling was rising more quickly. For a short 
time after their inception the Morley-Minto reforms threatened to diminish 
the importance of the Indian National Congress and the Moslem League. It 
seemed as if the councils where elected members took a share in the business of 
government must be a more effective instrument for political purposes than 
mere self-constituted gatherings. But with the disillusionment about the 
reformed councils the popular conventions, where speakers were free to attack 
the government and give vent to their own aspirations untrammelled by rules 
of business or the prospect of a reply, naturally regained their ascendancy, 
and the line taken by prominent speakers in them has been to belittle the 
utility of the councils, if not to denounce them as a cynical and calculated sham. 1 

1 "Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, East India, 1918, pp. 85-86. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE FUTURE 

The events 1909-14 

The extent of the seditious movement 
The durbar of 191 1 and its boons 

The repeal of the partition of Bengal 
Minor events 

The abortive Council of India Act 

The concession of the Legislative Council in the Central Provinces 
The Indian Councils Act of 191 5 
The Public Service Commission 
The Morley-Minto reforms, the last real concessions prior to the war 
The degree of success achieved in developing self-government in India slight 
Reasons for the lack of success 
Aims of the concessions 

The reduction of the burden of administration, not the training 

of natives to govern themselves 
The securing of the native point of view 
The quieting of the unrest 
Lukewarmness of the officials toward the development of self- 
government 

Immersion in business 

Reluctance to promote a policy possibly leading to the expulsion 

of England from India 
Distrust of ability of natives 
The immensity of the task 
The alterations actually effected since 1861 
In England 

The admission of two natives to the Council of India 
In India 

The admission of one native to the Executive Council of the viceroy 
The creation of local and municipal boards 
The creation and enlargement of legislative councils 
Probability of further concessions to the extent of Canada, Australia, or South 

Africa 
Permanency of English rule in India 

Impossibility of solving the racial difficulty 
Impossibility of keeping India under subjection by force 

227 



228 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

The reforms of 1909 were not solely relied on to quiet the situation. 
A new, more elaborate, and far more stringent press law 1 was passed 
through the Imperial Legislative Council on February 9, 19 10. Nor 
did the reforms of 1909 effect any material diminution of the campaign 
of violence. Gang and individual murders continued, and there was 
evidence of a general conspiracy. 

A letter of March 14, 1910, from Sir H. Stuart, of Bengal, secretary 
to the government of India Home Department, to the chief secretary 
to the government of Bengal, gives an official estimate of the seditious 
movement of which the following are taken as expressing the general 
attitude of the government: 

The chief of the causes of sedition is the extent of disaffection toward the 
British government which now undoubtedly exists in many parts of India. 
Nowhere is any considerable portion of the population imbued with that spirit. 
It is confined with a few negligible exceptions to the literate middle classes. It 
is not the expression of revolt against excessive taxation or oppressive laws. 
It may have some slight economic basis but in the main it is an intellectual 
sentiment and not founded on any material grievances though those engaged 
in sedulously propagating the nationalist views are quick to seize on any 
ephemeral circumstances of that character to advance their cause. 

We have then a party, small in numbers, but of considerable influence 
and inspired by convictions strongly and even fanatically held who are opposed 
to the continuance of British rule. This party may be broadly divided into 
two classes though the line of division is not a sharp one nor of a permanent 
character. 

The first class consists of those who desire autonomy but seek to obtain 
it by such methods as passive resistance and the continual sapping of the 
foundations of loyalty by means of attacks in the press, on the platform and 
on more private occasions. The members of this branch of the party of dis- 
affection are not ordinarily prepared to advocate a resort to violence though 
many of them secretly sympathize with outrage and assassination and all 
alike are unwilling to assist in the suppression of political crime. 

The second class comprises those who advocate and practice the methods 
of terrorism, directed not only against public servants, European and Indian, 
but also against all persons who come forward and assist the cause of justice 
with information or evidence. This class consists for the most part of youths 
who are still at school or college and of young men who have not long passed 
that period of their lives. These active revolutionaries are most prominent in 
Bengal, East Bengal, and Bombay. Their movement has spread to the 
Central Provinces and Berar and to the Punjab and is found even in some of 

1 Collection of the Acts Passed by the Governor-General of India in Council, 1910, 
Act I. 



THE FUTURE 229 

the native states. It has made but little headway in the United Provinces 
and Madras, but there are danger spots in both of these provinces which require 
very careful watching. The government of India has received no informa- 
tion of its existence in Burma or on the northwestern frontier. These youthful 
terrorists are banded together in societies, but how far the associations are 
under any central control it is not yet possible to say. There are indications 
of such a control, but these do not at present amount to much more than sur- 
mise. In any case it seems probable that if any central authority exists, it 
does not exercise a very close direction over local activities. 

The distribution of the less violent'form of sedition is, as might be expected, 
very much the same as that of the terrorist movement and there is, no doubt, 
a close connection between the two for the persistent preaching of sedition has 
a marked effect upon the youth of the country and thus creates a favorable 
recruiting ground for the party of revolutionary violence while there are some 
reasons for suspecting that the real leaders of the party of violence conceal 
themselves under the cloak of more moderate opinions. 1 

The foregoing was probably a fairly true summary of the condi- 
tions in 1910 and, with the insertion of a modifying statement to the 
effect that the seditious movement is apparently somewhat more wide- 
spread than at that time, would still hold. The efforts at conciliation 
by enjoining courtesy on the part of the officials and at attempting to 
direct education seem to have been but of slight avail. 

The agitation over the partition of Bengal continued unremittingly. 
Every year rahki day was observed with mourning. 

Late in 1910 Lord Minto was succeeded by Lord Hardinge and 
Lord Crewe replaced Morley as secretary of state. In 191 1 an attempt 
was made to "play the king and take the trick," by taking occasion to 
have George V assume the crown at a Grand Durbar at Delhi and grant 
seven boons. 2 



?, June 14, 1910, p. 8, col. 4. 

2 The most important of these were: (1) the grant of half a month's pay to all 
soldiers, British and Indian, all sailors of the Royal and Indian Marine, and all sub- 
ordinate civilians drawing fees less than fifty rupees (£13, 6s. 8d.) a month; (2) making 
officers and men of the India Army eligible for the Victoria Cross; (3) the release of 
certain prisoners undergoing sentences for crimes and misdemeanors; (4) the discharge 
of all civil debtors whose liabilities were small and due, not to fraud, but to real poverty, 
and the payment of their obligations; (5) the setting aside of fifty lakhs (£300,000) 
for the promotion of education with the promise of further grants in future years 
on a generous scale; (6) the transfer of the seat of government of the Indian Empire 
from Calcutta to Delhi; and (7) the establishment of the governorship of Bengal, 
with a new lieutenant-governorship for Behar, Chota-Nagpur, and Orissa, and a 
chief-commissionership for Assam. 



230 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

By far the most important of these concessions was the repeal of 
Viscount Morley's "accomplished Fact," the partition of Bengal. 
Even it, however, produced no lasting effect. An all but successful 
attempt on the life of Baron Hardinge was made in December of the 
following year when a bomb was thrown down into the howdah of his 
elephant as he was making the triumphal state entry into the new capital, 
Delhi. 

The boons of 191 1 were the last political events of importance before 
the outbreak of the war. In 191 2-14 came the visit of the Royal Public 
Service Commission, which beyond a voluminous report was without 
result. In 19 14 there was an attempt to pass a new measure modi- 
fying the Council of India which was dropped; the concession of a 
legislative council in the Central Provinces was under consideration, 
and the first stages of the consolidating Indian Councils Act of 191 5 
were under way; but there were no developments of importance in 
the field of self-government. The war stopped for the time being 
further developments until the Parliamentary Committee with its radi- 
cal proposals, which ripened into the Legislation of 1918, embodying 
what was frankly intended to be steps toward a real native control of 
provincial government. 

The reforms brought to pass during the viceroyalty of Lord Minto 
were, therefore, the last material alterations effected in the structure of 
the government of India before the outbreak of the war. Viewed as a 
whole the changes effected since 1858 were far from revolutionary and 
considering that two generations had passed, indicated no startling 
success in the development of self-government. The process had indeed 
been a halting one, and apparently in spite of occasional instances of 
men like Lord Ripon there was before the war little and certainly no 
persistent, clearly formulated purpose of making India a self-governing 
country. England was more concerned with lightening the burden of 
administration by passing some of the labor off on to native shoulders. 

The reforms in the field of provincial and imperial government were 
also actuated by the desire of securing the native point of view. The 
later reforms too seem to have been more or less concessions to soothe 
unrest and violence. English officials as a rule have been too immersed 
in the labor of operating the immense machine of government to devote 
any very serious effort to what seemed to them to be fantastic ideals. 
They at heart probably were lukewarm, to say the least, in promoting a 
policy which ultimately might lead to the expulsion of England from 
India. Most of them felt both from actual experience and hearsay a 



THE FUTURE 231 

profound distrust of the capabilities of the natives to conduct a stable 
or efficient government. The task has been big and on the whole the 
spirit was lacking which was necessary in view of the difficulties, to 
accomplish any material achievement in the development of self- 
government in India. In view of these facts it is not surprising that 
England has done so little in the way of developing self-government in 
India. It may be well, however, to summarize the principal changes 
effected during these two-score years. 

In England the British electorate and Parliament in theory still 
remain supreme and the latter body has displayed on the whole an 
increasing interest in the affairs of the "Brightest jewel of the King's 
Crown." The secretary of state and his functions have remained practi- 
cally unchanged. His Council, however, has received the addition of 
two native members. 

In India the framework of administration was but little changed. 
The supreme authority to all intents and purposes was still the viceroy 
and his Council. The only break in this exclusive European circle was 
the admission of one native to this select body. In the provinces the 
functions of the governors and their subordinates, although somewhat 
enlarged, were essentially the same. In spite of much talk about the 
separation of executive and judicial functions the mainspring of the 
government of India, the district officers, still continued to carry on 
the real work of administration in the same old way. 

The only qualification necessary to this statement is in the case of 
the municipalities and local boards, which were practically new creations 
since 1858. It was among them that the progress of native Indians 
toward control of India first began, and it is among them that they have 
achieved the greatest degree of success in assuming part of the work of 
administration. 

Of later origin, but recently of more spectacular growth, were the 
legislative councils, both imperial and provincial. The enlargements of 
membership and powers effected in 1909 brought to a head the inevit- 
able collision between the responsibility to Parliament, which England 
insists upon, and responsibility to Indian electorates, which from its 
very essence the concession of native members elected to express opinions 
on legislative measures involved. Up to the war the deadlock was 
broken by the vetoes of the governors and the viceroy, and the official 
majority in the Imperial Council. Further steps could not long be 
delayed. England has already been compelled to abandon the position 
that the legislative councils were in no way embryo parliaments. It 



232 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

seems not unlikely that she will be compelled to concede still more, and 
it is difficult to see how any final stop can be made short of the ultimate 
renunciation of the authority of Parliament, at least to the extent that 
it has already been renounced in the cases of Canada, South Africa, 
and Australia. 

The problem still before England is the same which Sir A. C. Lyall 
put into these words: 

I am always thinking of the probable fortunes of our empire, and trying 
to conceive it possible to civilize and convert an enormous nation by the 
mechanical processes of the present times by establishing schools and mis- 
sionary societies. Also having civilized them and taught them the advantage 
of liberty and the use of European sciences, how are we to keep them under 
us and to persuade them that it is for their good that we hold all the high 
offices of government P 1 

It is also something more. It has become more and more a racial 
question. Will England be able to create in India a sentiment strong 
enough to keep India within the empire when it attains its full stature 
as a nation ? If England succeeds it will be the greatest achievement 
in history. Two factors will probably decide the issue. One is whether 
the individual Englishmen of this generation lay aside the antipathy to 
a dark skin and brusque assumption of superiority that seems to gall 
the educated native so much, and second, whether England handles the 
situation in such a way that it becomes necessary for her to resort to 
military force to maintain her supremacy. If England fails to do the 
one or does the other, her days in India are numbered. In other words 
can England accomplish the apparently impossible ? 

This is not ignoring or minimizing the devotion displayed and 
immense assistance rendered to England by India during the war, 2 
nor giving undue weight to the Ghadr conspiracy, the Moplah rising, 
the widespread disorder in the Punjab and Bengal, and the fact that the 
loyalty displayed was most noteworthy on the part of the princes of the 
native states whose thrones rest entirely on the continuation of British 
supremacy. There is but one enigma. Was it a case of loyalty to 
England and the empire, or an unhesitating preference for English as 
against German domination ? We shall soon know. India is slowly 
reaching her majority as a nation in consciousness. 1 No more sig- 

1 M. Durand, Life of A.C. Lyall, p. 89. 

2 "Constitutional Reforms," Parliamentary Papers, East India, 1018, p. 19. 

3 Ibid., p. 131. 



THE FUTURE 233 

nificant evidence can be needed than the Hindu Moslem entente of 
the Congress and the League in uniting on a program of reforms. 

Did the climate permit colonization on a large scale and were not 
the native population so enormous and at the same time potentially 
so capable, it might be a different story, but as it is, India seems to be too 
immense, too remote, and of too inhospitable a climate to become a 
second Ireland, too inherently different in culture, interests, and race to 
become another Australia or Canada, and its native population too 
immense and capable to become a South Africa. 



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234 



BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LITERATURE CITED 235 

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GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 243 

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244 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

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don, 1909. 

— . "Return February 13, 191 1, of Prosecutions for Seditious Speeches 
and Writings, and of Proceedings Taken under Section 108 of the Indian 
Criminal Code." London, 191 1. 



246 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 

Parliamentary Papers. East India. Government. "Correspondence Relat- 
ing to the Government of India." London, 1895. 

. Emigration. "Emigration from India to Crown Colonies." Lon- 
don, IQIO. 

— — ■ — . India Office. "Statement Exhibiting the Moral and Material 



Progress and Conditions of India." London, 1859. (Annually.) 
Punjab. Report on the Administration of the Punjab, 1860-1915. Calcutta. 

(Date unknown.) 
. Selections from the Records of the Government of the Punjab and Depend- 
encies. Calcutta. (Date unknown.) 



INDEX 



Admission of natives to government, 97, 

i9S 
Advisory council, 190, 222 
Allyghur Mohammedan University, 141 
Assam, 25, 186 
Attitude of natives, 12, 75, 122, 136, 175, 

183, 186, 197 

Bannerjea, Surendranath, 135 

Baring, Sir Evelyn, 87 

Bengal, 2, 51, 57, 66, 119 

Bombay, 2, 52, 53, 72, 104, 117, 170, 172, 

178-81 
Boons, royal, 191 1, 230 
Brahmins, 142 
Bright, John, 7, 17 
Budget discussion, 154, 204 
Burma, 25, 72, 105 

Calcutta, 2, 171-75 

Central Provinces, 25, 71, 107-14 

Character of English rule, 9,17 

Chief commissioners, 25 

Civil service, 30, 143 

Classes, 13, 141 

Conferences, provincial, 141 

Congress, Indian National, 133-48, 191 

Cotton, Sir Henry, 143 

Council of India, 23, 193 

Councils, provincial, 208, 212 

Curzon, Lord, 143, 155, 159, 165, 186 

Dangerous Associations Act, 1908, 200 
Disraeli, Benjamin, 19 
District officer, 26, 96 
Dufferin, Lord, 89, 100, 142 

Educated class, 84, 113, 142, 143 
Education, 11, 84, 134 
Elective principle, 80-92, 118, 155, 164 
Electorates, 118, 119, 163, 203, 209 
Executive Council, 24, 35, 202 
Executive councils, provincial, 223 
Explosive Substances Act, 1908, 200 



Gladstone, 86, 158 

Government of India, 22-29, 161-67, 
193-95, 201-24 

Hindus, 85, 142 
Hume, A. O., 134 

Incitement to Murder Act, 1908, 200 
Indian Councils Act, 1861, 35, 44 
Indian Councils Act, 1892, 8, 49, 149-69 
Indian Councils Act, 1909, 204 
Interpellation, 154, 166, 204, 207 

Lansdowne, Lord, 151, 159, 163, 166 

Lawrence, Sir John, 59 

League, Moslem, 192-93 

Legislation, 28, 29, 38, 213 

Legislative Council, imperial, 32-34, 43, 

154, 212-14 
Legislative councils, provincial, 40, 167, 

168, 203 
Lyall, Sir A. C, 13 
Lytton, Lord, 77 

Madras, 2, 52, 64, 102, 107, 118, 170, 
176, 177 

Mohammedans, 85, 141, 191 
Mohammedans, special representation, 

216-22 
Maine, Sir Henry, 41, 43, 57, 58 
Majority, official, 204, 209, 212 
Mayo, Lord, 63-65 
Military position, 1 2 
Minto, Lord, 189 
Minute of 1906, 189-90 

Morley, Viscount, 193-95, 201-2, 207, 
223-24 

Municipalities, 27, 49-76 

Naoroji, Dadabhai, 146, 191 
Native representation, 37, 155-62 
Nawab of Dacca, 191-93 
Northbrook, Lord, 7 

Northwestern Provinces, 49, 55, 70, 100, 
114 

Oudh, 25, 70 



247 



X 



248 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 



Parliament — Indian representation, 146 

Partition of Bengal, 186-88, 230 

Population, 2 

Palmerston, Viscount, 19 

Policy of England, 5, 18 

Presidencies, 25 

Presidency cities, 27, 170-81 

Press, native, 78, 198 

Proclamation, Queen's, 30 

Provinces, 25 

Punjab, 25, 55, 67, 104, 114, 168 

Regulation of Meetings Ordinance, 1907, 

199 
Religion, 4 
Repression, 200 



Resolution of 1881, 88-94 
Resolutions, 204, 207 
Ripon, Lord, 77, 86-132 
Rural self-government, 105-19 

Sayyed Ahmed Khan, 121, 141 
Secretary of state, 23 
South Africa, 184-85 
Suez Canal, 78 

Taxation, 10, 69, 73, 74, 103, 107, 112, 119 
Temple, Sir Richard, 12, 86 

Village, 27 
Violence, 196-200 

Wood, Sir C, 32, 38, 40, 42 



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